{"id":217721,"date":"2025-06-23T10:57:48","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T20:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=217721"},"modified":"2025-06-23T10:57:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T20:57:48","slug":"shaping-the-future-of-cybersecurity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/06\/23\/shaping-the-future-of-cybersecurity\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaping the future of cybersecurity: UH<\/abbr> professor leads panel in nation\u2019s capital"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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Mehdi Tarrit Mirakhorli, left, moderates a national panel on cybersecurity.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mehdi Tarrit Mirakhorli, a professor in the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa\u2019s Department of Information and Computer Sciences<\/a>, moderated a national panel on cybersecurity innovation and federal defense strategy on June 12 in the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

Hosted by the Institute for Security and Technology, Critical Effect DC<\/abbr> 2025<\/a> convened key players in policy, technology and infrastructure protection. Participants included members of Congress, executive branch of the government, leading think tanks and researchers, private-sector experts and civil society advocates. The panelists discussed hard questions on why America\u2019s cyber innovation is broken.<\/p>\n

“Real change will take uncomfortable conversations,” Mirakhorli said. “Despite decades of investment in cybersecurity—tools, talent and policy—threat campaigns like Volt Typhoon reveal that our nation’s critical infrastructure is still fundamentally vulnerable. Incremental R&D and putting band-aids on various solutions has failed. It is time to smash the temple and start over. Industry, academia and the public sector need to play their role, but that is different from how these entities are engaged today.”<\/p>\n

Mirakhorli added, “The next breakthrough in cyber defense requires bold, mold-breaking joint ventures where academia, government incubators and private sector innovators work together. In Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>, where we’re geographically isolated and deeply connected through shared infrastructure, resilience isn’t just a technical goal—it\u2019s a necessity for our communities\u2019 safety and well-being.”<\/p>\n

Mirakhorli\u2019s panel, Rethinking Cybersecurity: From Volt Typhoon to Resilience by Design<\/em>, examined why major vulnerabilities persist across national cyber infrastructure despite decades of investment, and explored opportunities to reimagine the federal cybersecurity ecosystem amid rapidly evolving AI<\/abbr>-driven threats. Panel members included representatives from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, BeyondTrust and Palo Alto Networks.<\/p>\n

New ideas for essential systems<\/h2>\n

The panel also looked at how new ideas—from both government programs and private companies—could strengthen the systems we all rely on, such as electricity, emergency services, clean water and communication networks. The topics aligned closely with congressional appropriation requests under development to expand cybersecurity research and development in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Critical Effect DC<\/abbr> 2025 emphasized actionable solutions and featured sessions on infrastructure protection, cyber-physical systems and workforce development—particularly for underrepresented populations.<\/p>\n

Mirakhorli, a faculty member in UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s Department of Information and Computer Sciences in the College of Natural Sciences<\/a>, has led major research initiatives in secure-by-design systems and cyber resilience. He has supported key federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in advancing national cybersecurity policy and protecting critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UH<\/abbr> professor calls for bold collaboration to fix America\u2019s cybersecurity system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":217722,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[308,541,749,484,1467,1363,568,9],"class_list":["post-217721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-college-of-natural-sciences","tag-computer-science","tag-cybersecurity","tag-information-and-computer-science","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-natural-science","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t