by Admin | Sep 20, 2016 | Global Enlightenment Leaders, Board of Directors, Board of Thinkers
Member of Boston Global Forum’s Board of Thinkers; Co-founder, member of GC Development Council & Global Citizenship Educators at Global Citizenship Education Network
Nazli Choucri is Professor of Political Science of MIT. Her work is in the area of international relations, most notably on sources and consequences of international conflict and violence. Professor Choucri is the architect and Director of the Global System for Sustainable Development (GSSD), a multi-lingual web-based knowledge networking system focusing on the multi-dimensionality of sustainability. As Principal Investigator of an MIT-Harvard multi-year project on Explorations in Cyber International Relations, she directed a multi-disciplinary and multi-method research initiative. She is Editor of the MIT Press Series on Global Environmental Accord and, formerly, General Editor of the International Political Science Review. She also previously served as the Associate Director of MIT’s Technology and Development Program.
The author of eleven books and over 120 articles, Dr. Choucri is a member of the European Academy of Sciences. She has been involved in research or advisory work for national and international agencies, and for a number of countries, notably Algeria, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, Pakistan, Qatar, Sudan, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. She served two terms as President of the Scientific Advisory Committee of UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformation (MOST) Program.
by Admin | May 2, 2016 | News
Allan M. Cytryn is with Risk Masters International, LLC, a consulting firm that advises clients on Risk Mitigation and Management, including business continuity planning, disaster recovery, and recovery from cyber attacks. He has been a senior Information Technology executive for more than 30 years. Prior to Risk Masters, Allan spent 15 years at Deloitte where he was a Director. His roles and responsibilities there included Regional CIO, National Director of Applications, and National Director of Technology for Audit and Enterprise Risk Services. Before joining Deloitte, Allan was the CIO of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, a Vice President of Corporate Finance with Goldman Sachs, and a Vice-President of Information Technology with Bankers Trust. In all of these roles he led organizations through rapid operational and technological transformations and helped them adopt new and innovative technologies to support their core strategic objectives.
Allan additionally played a critical leadership role for Deloitte in managing the IT recovery from the 9/11/2001 attack in New York and for Simpson Thacher and Bartlett leading their recovery from the 1993 NatWest Tower Bombing in London.
Allan earned a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and an MS in Operations Research & Applied Mathematics from Columbia Engineering, as well as a M.Arch from Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. He is active in alumni affairs, serving as the Chair of the Alumni Board of Visitors of the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and as the Treasurer of The Society of Columbia Graduates
His son, Steven, graduated from Columbia College in 2006.
by Admin | Oct 21, 2016 | News
(October 2oth, 2016) On September 3rd, The Boston Global Forum hosted the very first BGF-UNESCO-at-UCLA conference at the Harvard University Faculty Club.
This conference was an official event to establish the Global Citizenship Education Network (GCEN) between UNESCO, UCLA and the Boston Global Forum (BGF) . Based on GCEN, we will implement our next initiatives: Global Citizen Number (GCN), Global Citizen Score Card (GCSC) , Global Citizen Certificate (GCC), and Global Citizen Leadership programs (GCL).
Here the presentations from our distinguished speakers at the conference concerning Global Citizenship Education in Cyber Civil Defense.
Analytics for Smart Grid Cybersecurity by Nazli Choucri and Gaurav Agarwal
Cyber Civil Defense by Allan Cytryn
Cyber-security Incidents by Rodman K. Reef from Reef Karson Consulting, LLC
The Dynamics of International Cyber Conflict by Ryan C. Maness
Global Citizenship in Cyber Civil Defense
by Admin | Aug 4, 2016 | News
Addressing Attacks on Vietnamese Computer Systems
By
Allan Cytryn, Risk Masters International, LLC; Member of Board of Thinkers, The Boston Global Forum
and Prof. John E. Savage, Brown University; Member of Board of Thinkers, The Boston Global Forum
We recommend a series of actions, both short and long-term. The ultimate goals of these actions are to 1) ensure the appropriate international agencies are fully engaged in addressing this issue and its longer term implications, 2) operationally address the issue immediately and restore reliable, safe operations for air travel, and 3) more broadly enhance the cyber-resilience of Vietnam so that it is less vulnerable to such incidents.
I. Ensure the appropriate international agencies are engaged:
- . This is an airline security issue. We recommend reporting it to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and requesting their assistance. While they may not have cyber security expertise, they are very concerned about security and may be able to help address the problem.
- We recommend reporting this incident to FIRST, the global Forum for Incident Response and Security Teams. FIRST describes itself as the “premier organization and recognized global leader in (computer security) incident response.” As you can see from their website, they can provide a great deal of assistance with long and short term solutions.
- This serious incident should also be reported to international bodies including ASEAN, G7, G20, and UNGA.
II. Address the issue immediately and restore reliable, safe operations:
- Consultants should be hired to do a forensic analysis of the affected systems. Friendly governments, such as the US, can advise on companies that are highly qualified to do this analysis and that can be trusted as well.
- Companies that we would recommend include Crowdstrike and Fidelis.
III. Longer-term, more broadly enhance the cyber-resilience of Vietnam:
a. Implement broad-based cyber-education at multiple levels
i. Train local specialists in computer security.
- The Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) can help to develop university-level cybersecurity educational programs.
- The Boston Global Forum can also help with this effort.
- Vietnam could also emulate the US Computer Science for All program that encourages young Americans to acquire computer science skills.
ii. Educate policymakers and academics about Internet governance issues.
- DiPLO Foundation has cybersecurity programs to help diplomats to acquire the knowledge necessary to participate in international policy development.
- The Boston Global Forum can also help with this matter.
iii. Develop programs in cyber-hygiene for the general population and develop policies and practices to ensure the general population is appropriately educated in this area
- Begin classroom training in early education and continue through all level of schooling
- Provide online courses to allow all persons, including those not in school, to be properly educated
- Consider policies and incentives to encourage people to take the cyber-hygiene courses
b. Develop a cyber-resilient infrastructure
i. Broadly adopt the principle of cyber-resilience across all IT and Communications infrastructure in Vietnam.
ii. Jumpstart the process by targeting key industries, businesses and organizations that have the highest level of exposure and risk.
- Consider “pooling” or sharing resources and teams across multiple organizations where appropriate and practical to maximize the speed and effectiveness of the initial programs.
- Identify and address reasonable impediments to success, including funding, product availability, staff availability and training.
iii. Align these efforts with training goals, using these implementation activities to further the nation’s goals to train individuals who can then apply their learnings to other enterprises.
