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An ex-CIA associate director and a former head of the National Security Agency will be making appearances at Furman University.(Photo: FILE/Staff)Buy Photo

An ex-CIA associate director and a former head of the National Security Agency will be making appearancesat Furman University during a two-day symposium on national security and civil liberties.

The symposium, "Safe and Free? Civil Liberties and the Fight for National Security," is free and open to the public.

It starts at 7 p.m. Monday with Lt. Gen. John Mulholland (U.S. Army, ret.), a former commander of special forces and CIA associate director for military affairs, who will speak on Americas Current and Future National Security Challenges.

Following his talk, commander of U.S. Army Intelligence Maj. Gen. Chris Ballard, Jen Lambert of the State Department, and biotechnology scientist Sheana Cavitt will discuss how we address national security challenges in an increasingly complex world.

At 7 p.m. Tuesday,Adm. Mike McConnell (U.S. Navy, ret.), former U.S. Director of National Intelligence and former head of the National Security Agency will present the case for government surveillance.

Weighing in on the balance between providing national security and protecting civil liberties are Maurice Owens, who coordinated the White House situation room and is now an executive with Libra Group; Eli Dourado, a technology policy and cybersecurity expert; former CIA officer Mike Roosevelt; and National Public Radio's lead digital reporter Jessica Taylor.

Historian and 10th Furman president David Shi will moderate both sessions.

All 10 speakers Furman University graduates.

The symposium is presented by the Riley Institute and the university's Department of Politics and International Affairs.

For more information about the symposium, contact the Riley Institute at 864-294-3546 or visit this link.

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Former NSA head to talk about government surveillance - Greenville News

The University of West Florida has been named by the National Security Agency as the National Center Academic of Excellence Cybersecurity Regional Resource Center for the Southeastern region. In this role, the UWF Center for Cybersecurity will provide leadership to advance cyber defense education among colleges and universities in the region and support new and existing CAE institutions.

UWF will serve as the CAE Regional Resource Center for all institutions of higher education in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Puerto Rico. The University will receive a nearly $200,000 grant and will work with the NSA CAE Program Office and other regional and national hubs across the country to enhance cybersecurity education and expand the CAE Program across the nation.

This prestigious designation recognizes the excellent and innovative programs offered by the UWF Center for Cybersecurity, UWF President Martha D. Saunders said. Our selection as a regional resource center recognizes the leadership role that Dr. Eman El-Sheikh and her team have taken in this vital area. UWF has developed a number of partnerships with key players in the field of cybersecurity that prepare our students for successful careers.

The CAE-Cyber Defense Program Office named six CAE institutions as CAE Regional Resource Centers, as well as four CAE National Resource Centers and four CAE Consultation Resource Centers across the nation.

In May 2016, the NSA and the Department of Homeland Security designated UWF as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education. The National Centers of Academic Excellence program seeks to reduce vulnerability in the nations information infrastructure by promoting higher education and research in cyber defense and increasing the number of professionals with cyber defense expertise.

We are honored to serve as the CAE Regional Resource Center for the Southeast, said Dr. Eman El-Sheikh, UWF Center for Cybersecurity director. Building on our successes and partnerships, UWF will lead efforts to advanced cybersecurity education and expand the cybersecurity workforce. We will work to increase the number of CAE designated institutions in the Southeast and also provide support and resources to existing CAE institutions.

This will include cybersecurity program development support, faculty professional development activities, and enhancing research and education collaborations among Southeast institutions. Our mission is highly rewarding: build a strong cybersecurity community to advance education, workforce development and innovation in the Southeast and nationally.

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NSA Names UWF As Regional Cybersecurity Resource Center - NorthEscambia.com

The University of West Florida will receive a $200,000 grant from theNational Security Agency to help boost cybersecurity education programs for colleges and universities in the southeasternU.S.

NSA pickedUWFasthe location ofthe National Center of Academic Excellence Cybersecurity Regional Resource Center forhigher education institutions in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Puerto Rico, the universitysaid Monday.

UWFs Center for Cybersecurity will lead efforts to advance cyber defense education in the southeast region as well assupport new and existing CAE institutions as a CAERegional Resource Center.

Eman El-Sheikh, director of UWFs Center for Cybersecurity, said the universitywill work to provide cybersecurity program development support; facilitate faculty professional development activities; and foster research and education collaborations among Southeast institutions.

The university will also collaboratewithNSAs CAE Program Officeand other regional and national centers across U.S. to drivecybersecurity education and expand the CAE program nationwide.

NSA and the Department of Homeland Security designated UWF as a CAEin Cyber Defense Education last year.

The National Centers of Academic Excellence program aims to promote higher education and research in cyber defense as well as increase the number of cybersecurity professionals who help secure the U.S. information infrastructure.

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NSA Taps University of West Florida to Help Expand Cybersecurity Education - ExecutiveGov

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Annoyed with the U.S. missile strike last week on an airfield in Syria, among other things, hacker group Shadow Brokers resurfaced on Saturday and released what they said was the password to files containing suspected National Security Agency tools they had earlier tried to sell.

Is appearing you are abandoning your base, the movement, and the peoples who getting you elected, the group wrote in broken English in a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump posted online on Saturday.

The hacker group, believed by some security experts to have Russian links, released in January an arsenal of tools that appeared designed to spy on Windows systems, after trying to to sell these and other supposedly Windows and Unix hacking tools for bitcoin.

The group also announced its retirement, which coming a few days before Trump's inauguration led to speculation that the Shadow Brokers was part of the hacking operations Russia had set up to allegedly help the new president get elected.

The group shot to prominence in August after it dumped hacking tools for routers and firewall products that they said came from the Equation Group, a cyberespionage team that is suspected to work for the NSA. The group published sample files as well as those to which they would provide the password to the winning bidder in the auction.

The U.S. attacked a Syrian government airfield last week in response to reports of an alleged chemical weapon attack by the government that killed many people including children. Trump said the chemical attack had been launched from the airfield.

Quick review of the #ShadowBrokers leak of Top Secret NSA tools reveals it's nowhere near the full library, but there's still so.... much here that NSA should be able to instantly identify where this set came from and how they lost it," former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden said in Twitter messages.

If they can't, it's a scandal, he added.

The strike on the airfield has also irked Russia, a backer of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The Shadow Brokers' criticism of the move is likely to further fuel speculation that they are backed by the Russian government, though there have also been theories that they are cleverly disguising their identity with their broken English on Twitter and in their posts to pass off as Russians.

The group on Sunday denied it was backed by Russia stating that: If theshadowbrokers being Russian dont you think wed be in all those U.S. government reports on Russian hacking? they wrote.

The NSA could not be immediately reached for comment after business hours.

John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for the IDG News Service.

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Angry Shadow Brokers release password for suspected NSA hacking tools - PCWorld

White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster on Sunday characterized the decision to relocate a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group to the Sea of Japan as "prudent," given North Korea's "pattern of provocative behavior."

"Well, it's prudent to do it, isn't it?" McMaster told Fox News' Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday," adding that "the president has asked to be prepared to give him a full range of options to remove that threat the American people and to our allies and partners in the region."

On Saturday, Adm. Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, redirected the USS Carl Vinson strike group from Singapore to the Sea of Japan, due east of the Korean Peninsula. The Navy said the strike group "will operate in the Western Pacific rather than executing previously planned port visits to Australia."

The strike group consists of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, the guided missile destroyers USS Wayne E. Meyer and USS Michael Murphy, and the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain.

North Korea has already conducted four missile launches this year, marking a considerable uptick in frequency compared to recent years. The U.S. government and its allies have repeatedly condemned North Korea's nuclear and missile program as illegal.

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NSA McMaster: 'Prudent' to send strike group to Korean Peninsula - ABC News