CA Security Architect Tim Brown: More Cyber Security Research and Education Needed

June 11, 2009

CA’s vice president and chief architect for Security Management, Tim Brown, provided expert testimony at a hearing entitled “Cyber Security R&D” before the House Committee on Science and Technology, Subcommittee on Research and Science Education. Brown spoke to the urgent need for increased higher education, public-private partnerships, and research and development for cyber security to help combat the increased risks of cyber threats.

Brown discussed whether federally supported research addresses the cyber security needs of industry in terms of new and emerging trends and threats. He also addressed questions regarding research in industry and the state of security education at the university level and for the general public.

“In the past few years there has been positive movement from both the software industry and enterprises, but there is still a great deal to do. Security is still sometimes an afterthought despite a number of factors that increase the overall risk to the IT environment,” Brown said. “The need to extend the enterprise to partners and consumers, the pace of technology adoption, the change in the threat environment, and the flexibility and speed of cyber criminals contribute to the increase in cyber security risk. This has sparked an urgent need for technology development and education at all levels in order to reduce the risk and combat threats.”

Brown is responsible for overall technical direction and oversight responsibilities for CA security management products. He has more than 20 years of information security expertise and has more than 14 patents in the security field. Brown is active in promoting cross-industry initiatives and has participated on a number of standards boards. Prior to joining CA, he was at Symantec where his duties included planning the company’s enterprise security architecture.