Assessing DOGE's Impact on Federal Cybersecurity and Data

Dr. Richard Forno

Assistant Director, UMBC Cybersecurity Institute

12–1pm EDT Friday, March 14, 2025 online

In just its first month of operation, that has disrupted large portions of the federal government, the activities of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have worried cybersecurity, national security, and information technology experts both inside and outside the federal government. Armed with root-level access and presidential authorization---yet often lacking relevant operational expertise or any meaningful oversight---DOGE’s staff, activities, and the security culture of the current administration in which they operate often seem to violate many time-tested best practices and principles for effective cybersecurity and technology management. They may also violate longstanding federal guidelines and regulations. As such, it is likely that DOGE is creating conditions that can cause operational, cybersecurity, or privacy incidents across the federal IT landscape and subsequently placing government information systems and sensitive citizen data at risk. On the CIA (confidentiality-integrity-availability) triad, this talk will examine DOGE's activities in the context of cybersecurity and technology best practices. Is DOGE truly an “insider threat” to the federal government as some claim? And if so, what countermeasures, if any, are available to address the threat?

Dr. Richard Forno is a teaching professor in the UMBC Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, where he directs the UMBC Graduate Cybersecurity Program, serves as the Assistant Director of UMBC's Cybersecurity Institute, and is an Affiliate Scholar at the Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society (CIS). Prior to academia, his twenty-year career includes helping build a formal cybersecurity program for the US House of Representatives, serving as the first Chief Security Officer for Network Solutions (then, the global center of Internet DNS), and other assorted roles with the government, military/defense entities, and private sector. In 2023, he was named a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo in Pachuca, Mexico. Along with regular public analysis and commentary, his most recent book is Cybersecurity for Local Governments (Wiley, 2022), coauthored with UMBC Public Policy colleagues Professor Emeritus Don Norris and Ph.D. candidate Laura Mateczun.

Extensible, efficient and autonomous operation of IoT applications across the computing continuum

Georgios Bouloukakis Télécom SudParis / IP Paris

12-1pm ET Friday March 14, 2025; UMBC ITE 325 & online

As computing continuum technologies (IoT-Edge-Cloud) emerge, infrastructures are becoming increasingly sensorized, driving the growth of smart space ecosystems and enhancing societal well-being. Despite the potential for revolutionizing operations within these ecosystems, smart spaces are highly dynamic and heterogeneous in context and resources. In this talk, I will provide an overview of past achievements and future pathways of the SATRAI Living Lab for enabling extensible, efficient and autonomous operation of IoT applications over smart spaces.

Georgios Bouloukakis is an Associate Professor at Télécom SudParis / IP Paris. He received his Ph.D. from Sorbonne University in 2017, conducting his thesis at the research center of INRIA Paris, France. Previously he held the position of postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Irvine in the Distributed Systems Middleware group. His research interests are on IoT/Edge-driven middleware and distributed software systems. Georgios is currently the Principal Investigator (PI) and Scientific Coordinator of 1 EU research project, and PI of 4 EU research projects. He has received the prestigious fellowships from INRIA@SiliconValley to conduct research during his Postdoc and Ph.D journeys. His published work has received best paper awards at ICIOT 2018, PerCom 2022 and the best artifact award at ICSA 2024.

UMBC's Black and Gold Rush 2025 begins this Wednesday, March 5th through Thursday, March 6th. The Shriver Center at UMBC is eager to join in the fun!

Across 6 programs, The Shriver Center works in collaboration with our students, faculty, staff, and community partners, aims to address critical societal challenges by bridging campus and community through engaged scholarship and applied learning. Together, we envision meaningful social change through transformational higher education and community partnerships.

Our initiatives/programs include:

• The Choice Program at UMBC
• The Shriver Peaceworker Fellows Program
• Community Engaged Learning (formerly “Service-Learning & Community Engagement”)
• Maryland Public Service Scholars Programs
• Community Leadership Program
• The Maryland Early Childhood Leadership Program.