Staff photo / Raymond L. Smith Andy Jabbour, co-founder of The Gate 15 Co., leads a discussion Friday at Youngstown State Universityás Willliamson College of Business about countering cyber- and other threats to the operations of universities and other institutions. Reviewing best practices will lead to better responses, participants were told.

YOUNGSTOWN — Countering cyber- and other threats to the operations of Youngstown State University and other institutions were topics of a Friday workshop.

“Our goal is to get people to think about cyber- and physical threats in an event of a health emergency, such as a measles outbreak, or a phishing attack on computer networks,” Sarah Bigham, a lead security analyst with Research and Education Networks Information Sharing and Analysis Center, said. The workshop was held in the Willliamson College of Business.

“We increasingly are seeing these cyber-threats happening,” said Andy Jabbour, co-founder of The Gate 15 Co., who led some of the discussions. “Cities and organizations are having information stolen and are being forced to pay to get the information returned to them.”

Friday’s workshop was one of six being conducted at universities across the country by the analysis center, known as REN-ISAC, with each talking about a fictional emergency scenario — a measles outbreak in an area or a phishing attack on a computer network.

REN-ISAC has more than 600 higher-education organizations that work together in addressing issues of cybersecurity protections.

“We are looking at a threat environment and the holistic approaches that organizations may take in combating it,” said Jabbour. “How do higher education institutions, as well as other associated agencies, including health departments, police and other agencies work together in addressing the problems?”

Future workshops will be held by the Northwest Academic Computer Consortium in Portland, Ore., the Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas, and at the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus.

Information gathered at the workshops will be reviewed and made into a report outlining best practices done at each of the participating universities. Recommendations made may improve their health and cyber security.

REN-ISAC was conceived in 2003 at Indiana University to promote cybersecurity and operational protection within the research and higher education communities, Bigham said. It does this through information sharing.

It sponsors six workshops every year at which educational leaders and others discuss cyber- and health threats.

Chris Wentz, chief information security officer at YSU, said having REN-ISAC at the university was a great opportunity to bring in experts from outside of the university to provide different perspectives on issues.

“We have representatives from other Ohio universities as well as universities from outside of the state,” Wentz said.

rsmith@tribtoday.com