NIST Fellow Ron Ross to Speak for Cotton Cybersecurity Lecture Series

Oct 9, 2018

By Tommy Riggs

FREDERICK, Maryland—An expert in information security and systems security engineering will deliver the second installment of the Cotton Cybersecurity Lecture Series at Hood College on Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. in Hodson Auditorium in Rosenstock Hall.

Ron Ross, Ph.D., will give a talk titled “Rethinking Cybersecurity from the Inside Out,” which will delve into numerous aspects of cybersecurity and critical infrastructure, in conjunction with National Cybersecurity Week.

Ross is a fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). His focus areas include information security, systems security engineering and risk management. He leads the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) Implementation Project, which includes the development of security standards and guidelines for the federal government, contractors and U.S. critical infrastructure.

He also leads the Joint Task Force, an interagency partnership with the Department of Defense, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, U.S. Intelligence Community, and the Committee on National Security Systems, with responsibility for the development of the Unified Information Security Framework for the federal government and its contractors. He has won more than 10 prestigious awards for his leadership and technical contributions in computer science.

A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Ross served in many leadership and technical positions during his 20-year career in the U.S. Army. He also graduated from the Defense Systems Management College and holds master’s doctoral degrees in computer science from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School specializing in artificial intelligence and robotics.

The Cotton Cybersecurity Lecture Series is made possible by a generous gift from John C. and Janet Hobbs Cotton ’59 and brings nationally and internationally recognized leaders in cybersecurity to campus to speak.

There is an expected 100 percent employment rate in cybersecurity through 2021. Globally by 2019, there will be demand for an estimated 6 million jobs in cybersecurity. In 2017, there were 350,000 cybersecurity job opening in the U.S. alone.

For more information about the lecture or Hood’s cybersecurity master’s program, contact April Boulton at boulton@hood.edu or 301-696-3600.