Nov. 20, 2020
Dear Cybersecurity and Privacy community,
Only two more weeks left this semester. It seems a little early to think about whether we are on track, but I am inspired by a conversation I just had with Georgia Tech CS 09 alumnus Kabir Barday. Kabir is the founder and CEO of OneTrust, a company he founded in 2016 to help enterprises tame the problems of privacy that are the unintended consequences of cybersecurity. OneTrust was featured in Inc. Magazine’s list of the fastest growing companies in America. In fact, OneTrust is the fastest growing company. I interviewed Kabir for the College of Computing’s John P. Imlay, Jr. Series on Entrepreneurship. Aside from the fascinating journey Kabir started as a Georgia Tech undergrad, I was struck by how disciplined he was in planning his future. Early milestones were important to Kabir’s success. There’s a lesson for the School.
The first milestone must involve education. I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago: the central reason for creating a school is education. How will an SCP education will be different from other educational experiences? There is no substitute for experiencing the challenges and exhilaration of working in this industry. That’s why we talk about internships, co-ops and other kinds of active learning. It’s not hard to find cybersecurity programs that feature active, experiential learning. Integrating those experiences into a curriculum is another matter altogether. We chartered a curriculum committee this week. That was a milestone. I will meet with the committee today and challenge them to build a project-based learning program in cybersecurity and privacy. They will only succeed if they figure out how the needs of industry will flow through the school’s curriculum.
Yesterday we celebrated the launch of the institute’s new strategic plan in a live virtual address with President Ángel Cabrera and other campus leaders. I hope you have a chance to review the plan in detail. The School of Cybersecurity and Privacy is in a unique position — as an intercollege school — to advance the strategic plan. We will champion a new model of collaboration and innovation for the institute and play our part in growing a culture of inclusiveness.
The school reached another milestone this week and is now accepting applications for tenure track faculty positions at all ranks. The school is seeking outstanding candidates who will help define a new interdisciplinary field of cybersecurity and privacy that encompasses the technical, economic, behavioral, policy, legal and international relations aspects of the field. If you know of a qualified prospect (including yourself), please encourage that person to apply by the Dec. 15 deadline: https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/17542
I wish all students the best as they finish the semester. I’ll be taking next week off for Thanksgiving. Wherever you plan to spend the Thanksgiving holiday, I hope you celebrate the season safely, especially if you are traveling or planning any big celebrations with others. Today, we wrap the Cybersecurity Virtual Lecture series for the semester with Evan Glover, chief privacy officer of NCR Corporation, discussing “Building a Strategic Privacy Program.”
As always, please feel free to drop by virtually today for the Chair’s Open Office Hour at 1 p.m. EDT.
Sincerely,
Richard DeMillo
Charlotte B. and Roger C. Warren Chair of Computing
Chair, School of Cybersecurity and Privacy
Visit me at www.demillo.com
Follow me on Twitter @rad_atl and @richde
