2011 IEEE Victoria Section AGM

Past

Speaker: Dr. Stephen W. Neville The Centre for Advanced Security, Privacy, and Information Systems Research (ASPIRe Centre) University of Victoria Title: Building solutions for a modern world 2011 has seen a substantial increased visibility in significant cyber-attacks targeted against government and business IT infrastructure, with attacks against Canadian Federal government ministries, the G8, the European Commission, the United Nations, and even the World Anti Doping Agency being reported within the global news media. Additionally, in 2011, serious privacy concerns were raised over issue such as Apple Inc.�s recording of location data within hidden files within its iOS operating system. This in turn is fueling new concerns, within US and Canadian regulators regarding personal privacy and its protection, particularly in light of modern mobile device capabilities and the rise of social networking. Underlying these issues, is the modern reality that societies now depend on a complex web of large-scale IT systems and software solutions for many core services such as: banking/finance, eCommerce, health care systems, email, VoIP, social networking, entertainment, as well as critical infrastructure systems, e.g., power and water delivery, telecommunications, transportation, etc. Unfortunately, large-scale software systems fail uncomfortably often, with major system failures, such as the 2011 crashing of Amazon�s EC2 cloud services platform, becoming commonplace news items. Addressing these complex engineering challenges require collaborative efforts across academia, industry, and government, with the solutions being technically focused but also involving a number of important and inter-related issues spanning psychology, business, economics, law, political science, public administration, etc. Recently, the Centre for Advanced Security, Privacy, and Information Systems Research (ASPIRe Centre) has been established within the University of Victoria�s Faculty of Engineering as a focal point, catalyst, and facilitator for research and collaborations within these areas of ever growing societal importance. In this talk, Dr. Stephen Neville, ASPIRe�s founding Director, will give an overview of a number of these challenging problems and the opportunities the ASPIRe Centre provides in developing appropriate solution. Biography Stephen W. Neville, PhD (UVic), PEng (BC), holds a bachelors degree in computer engineering (�90) and MASc (�92) and PhD (�98) degrees in electrical engineering all from the University of Victoria. Both during and after his graduate studies, Dr. Neville had various stints in industry both in Canada and in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2003, Dr. Neville joined the faculty of the University of Victoria�s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where his research is in the areas of cyber-security, privacy, and the engineering of larger-scale software systems and systems of systems. In 2011, Dr. Neville became the founding Director of the University of Victoria�s Centre for Advanced Security, Privacy, and Information Systems Research (ASPIRe Centre). Dr. Neville is also a founding academic member of the NSERC Strategic Network - the Interconnected Systems Security Network (ISSNet), Canada�s national cyber-security focused research network. Dr. Neville is a long time IEEE member and an ACM member.