FBI Academy gives Tuskegee CIO foundation for increased campus cyber security

September 29, 2023

Contact: Thonnia Lee, Office of Communications, Public Relations and Marketing

  

Abraham George, Tuskegee University’s Chief Information Officer, spent a week at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. He was the only representative from higher education among a group of leaders from manufacturing, healthcare, financial institutions, defense, and the aerospace industries attending CISO Academy for Information Security Leaders.

“It was great exposure to our national security, both inside and outside,” he said. “Some of the case studies are an inside threat, safeguarding intellectual properties of research institutions. There were a lot of international researchers collaborating from academy and US national labs.”

The conference shared case studies to work through scenarios creating learning opportunities for participants.

“They presented a case of how espionage happened, who was involved, how long it took to capture those individuals and what the lessons learned and lack of controls that led to the vulnerability to people and institutions,” he said.

George said the FBI office in this region recommended that he represent the university at the conference. “It was helpful to learn more about establishing policies and procedures and how to operationalize those policies and procedures to have better controls on our intellectual properties as well as personally identifiable information,” he said. “We also learned about various cybercrimes such as Illicit marketplace where credentials are for sale, evolving Ransomware attack through malware, cyber forensics, fraud in transactions of digital currencies (Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies etc.), behavioral analytics, insider threats and business email compromise”, the FBI academy shared several examples of protecting organization through Cyber security awareness programs in collaboration of campus stakeholders, with local enforcement agencies, adhering to best practice, and guidelines for collaborative research with proper controls as to how we exchange information and maintain trust for successful research collaborations and outcomes.”

He also met FBI Director Christopher Wray. “He addressed the team about how grateful he is to have this partnership to improve the national security for our nation,” he said. “He wanted all of us go to back to our respective areas and get interactive with our local agency office.

“This was an exceptional opportunity and I was very proud to represent Tuskegee in this way,” he said.

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