FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 5, 2005
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Attorneys’ offices from around the country will be in Albuquerque Dec. 5-9 for the annual Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIP) Coordinator’s conference, hosted by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Sandia National Laboratories.
The conference is sponsored by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Education and Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS). (More info.)
Some 180 conference goers will obtain tools and tips about how to better prosecute computer hackers and people who steal intellectual property.
Thursday (Dec. 8) will be Sandia day at the conference. Lab experts will provide information to conference attendees based on work Sandia does in cyber security. Sandia also will team with local representatives of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to illustrate how the three agencies can work together to solve cyber crime.
Members of the news media are invited to tour Sandia’s Center for SCADA Security on Thursday, Dec. 8, starting at 2:30 p.m. Equipment used to identify hackers and computer criminals trying to manipulate systems that control computerized operations of the nation’s critical infrastructures — including the electric power grid, oil and gas pipelines, and water treatment and distribution systems — will be shown. Media also will be briefed about the conference. News media attending the tour/briefing must RSVP to 844-2282 by 10 a.m., Dec. 8.
Some of the conference is classified, and all of it requires prior authorization to attend. Thursday afternoon’s session will be unclassified, featuring a tour of Sandia’s Center for SCADA Security. (See www.sandia.gov/scada.) SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems control computerized operations of the nation’s critical infrastructures, including the electric power grid, oil and gas pipelines, and water treatment and distribution systems.
“We are pleased to have this conference at Sandia,” says Michael Skroch, manager of a Sandia Department that runs red teams that probe U.S. systems in order to understand their vulnerabilities and improve their defenses. “Sandia has a vast amount of knowledge and experience in the area of cyber security. We’re anxious to leverage this capability to assist other government agencies, such as DOJ’s CCIPS, in protecting our national security and the integrity of our critical infrastructures.”
Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.
Sandia media contact: Chris Burroughs,coburro@sandia.gov, (505) 844-0948
Sandia technical contact: Michael Skroch, mjskroc@sandia.gov, (505) 844-0104