Annual IT Security Automation Conference Runs Sept. 27-29

The Sixth Annual IT Security Automation Conference, co-hosted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), focuses on applying and integrating emerging cyber security automation technologies and software assurance into a wide range of application areas such as cloud computing, health care information technology and compliance. The conference will be held Sept. 27-29, 2010, at the Baltimore Convention Center.

Keynote speakers include White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt and Intel Senior Fellow Stephen S. Pawlowski, chief technology officer for the Intel Architecture Group and general manager for Central Architecture and Planning for Intel Corp. Security automation embraces a variety of computing tools based on standards and specifications to reduce the complexity and time necessary to manage vulnerabilities, measure security, and ensure compliance.

This year's conference will focus on specific open standards and new security technologies as they apply to several high-interest areas, including:

• the U.S. Government Configuration Baseline,
• the Federal Desktop Core Configuration,
• emerging standards and specifications,
• the Security Content Automated Protocol (SCAP) Validated Tools,
• Content Validation, and
• reporting requirements for CyberScope and the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA).

The conference offers SCAP and automation content tutorials, sessions on continuous monitoring, threat assessment, vendor interoperability and security in the cloud, as well as use cases and wisdom shared by long-time security automation users in the field. The agenda is available at http://scap.nist.gov/events/2010/ITSAC_2010_draft_agenda-20100816.pdf.

NIST, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) co-host this annual event. The four agencies are actively involved in automating computer security.

The IT Security Automation Conference is geared toward public and private-sector executives, security managers and staff, information technology (IT) professionals and developers of products and services with a common understanding for using specific open standards and new security technologies.

A trade show runs concurrently with the conference and includes more than 30 vendors demonstrating available security automation packages. More information, including registration, is available at http://www.nist.gov/itl/csd/2010-scap-conference.cfm. Reporters interested in attending should contact Evelyn Brown, (301) 975-5661.