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R & D Exchange

The President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) conducts periodic research and development exchanges. These sessions are invaluable for the exchange of information between industry, Government, and academia alike, and recommendations raised during these exchanges help shape the National security and emergency preparedness (NS/EP) agenda. The NSTAC actively promotes the exchange of ideas among representatives from industry, Government, and academia through these R&D exchanges.

NSTAC has sponsored eight R&D exchanges over the past 14 years. The first exchange was actually two separate events intended to provide a forum for industry and Government officials to share their unique perspectives on R&D issues. In the first session, government representatives presented their views on security technology R&D issues. In 1996, the second exchange facilitated a discussion of network security problems affecting national security and emergency preparedness (NS/EP) telecommunications, identified R&D programs in progress to address those problems, and identified future security technology R&D needs. Four broad security topics were discussed: authentication, intrusion detection, integrity, and access control.

Held in October 1998, the third exchange, held at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, in conjunction with the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), encouraged participants to discuss collaborative approaches to security technology R&D. The fourth exchange, held in September 2000 at the University of Tulsa (Tulsa, Oklahoma) in conjunction with OSTP and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, focused on the need to develop best practices, standards, and protection profiles to enhance the security of the Next Generation Network (NGN).

NSTAC conducted its fifth R&D Exchange -- held March 13 and 14, 2002 -- at the Georgia Tech Information Security Center (GTISC) at the Georgia Institute of Technology, in Atlanta, Georgia. The theme involved "Issues to Ensure Trustworthiness in Telecommunications" and "Information Systems that Directly or Indirectly Impact National Security and Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP)." From October 28-29, 2004, the NSTAC held its sixth R&D Exchange in Monterey, California. This exchange continued to support the NSTAC goal of partnering of Government, industry, and academic resources, to support NS/EP telecommunications research.

The seventh R&D Exchange Workshop was the first in the series to be held outside the United States. The two-day exchange occurred September 21-22, 2006 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada under the theme of International Collaboration on Cyber Security Research and Development. The 2006 RDX Workshop addressed the need for multilateral collaboration between key governments, industry, and academia to enhance security on the network. Specifically, international stakeholders from these three sectors were invited to explore and prioritize issues associated with international collaboration on cyber security research and development.

The eighth and most recent R&D Exchange Workshop was held in at Motorola’s Corporate Offices in Schaumburg, Illinois, September 25-26, 2008. The conference theme was Evolving National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications in a Global Environment. Today’s communications networks, information systems, and threat environments have evolved dramatically, resulting in significant impacts to national security and emergency preparedness (NS/EP) communications. The 2008 RDX Workshop addressed the need to analyze the evolving environment for NS/EP communications. As communications technologies continue to converge and new types of technologies emerge, the landscape for NS/EP communications faces evolving challenges that may have global impacts.

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