“Shared responsibility” proved to be a major theme at NYIT’s 2011 Cyber Security Conference at the NYIT Auditorium on Broadway.

Thomas Smith, J.D., director of New York State’s Office of Cyber Security, was among the many speakers who called for more policies to protect individuals and organizations from digital intrusions. Likewise, companies, government agencies, and nonprofit groups need to cooperate to stay ahead of increasingly powerful networks of cyber criminals, another group of experts told attendees at the Sept. 15 event.

In addition to speakers from IBM, AT&T, CA Technologies, and other companies discussing cyber security measures, NYIT professors presented research on topics that included network forensics, security and energy efficiency of cloud systems, and security network architecture for hospitals and nursing homes.

A panel discussion wrapped up the conference, with par- ticipants calling for a balance of privacy and security as cloud computing becomes more popular. The panel, moderated
by Letse Co-Founder Paul Stirpe, included: Nasir Memon, Ph.D., professor at NYU-Poly; Raj Goel (B.S. ’94), CTO and co-founder of Brainlink International Inc.; Tom Bianculli, senior director of the emerging business office at Motorola Solutions; and Gregory Conti, Ph.D., associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the U.S. Military Academy.

Demonstrating how serious the threat has become, Gary Morse, president and founder of Razorpoint Security Technologies, noted how some governments may actually have a financial incentive to ignore hackers: “Cyber crime has become, in no uncertain terms, part of the GDP for certain countries.”