UMD, Tenable Announce Cybersecurity Partnership

Published February 7, 2011

The University of Maryland (UMD) and Tenable Network Security, the leader in Unified Security Monitoring and creator of the award-winning Nessus® vulnerability scanner, have announced a new partnership to establish collaborative activities in the area of cybersecurity. The partnership will promote cybersecurity education, research and technology development through UMD's newly-established Maryland Cybersecurity Center (MC², or MC-squared).

UMD and Tenable plan to leverage one another's resources, knowledge base, and unique perspectives to develop innovative solutions to cybersecurity challenges.

"We are delighted to establish this symbiotic and collaborative relationship with Tenable," said Prof. Patrick O'Shea, co-director of MC² and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Clark School. "We look forward to working together to develop new and innovative solutions to cybersecurity challenges, advance cybersecurity education and research, and contribute to technology growth in the state of Maryland."

MC² is establishing alliances and partnerships between academia, government and industry to provide educational programs that will prepare the future cybersecurity workforce, and develop new, innovative technologies to defend against cybersecurity attacks. UMD researchers are applying their expertise in a variety of critical areas related to cybersecurity, including wireless and network security, secure software, cyber supply chain risk management, infrastructure protection, threat assessment, privacy in social networks, cybersecurity policy, cryptography, attacker behavioral analysis, multimedia forensics, and the economics of cybersecurity. MC² offers a holistic approach to cybersecurity education, research and technology development, stressing "more-than-tech," interdisciplinary solutions. MC² brings together experts from engineering and computer science with colleagues from across campus in fields such as economics, social sciences and public policy to help establish broad-based cybersecurity initiatives.

Tenable specializes in helping organizations monitor network security threats with their award-winning enterprise-class software solutions, while at the same time helping organizations monitor compliance with internal policies and external regulations. Tenable pioneered and continues to innovate a unique Unified Security Monitoring approach that is revolutionizing the way enterprises are monitoring security and compliance information. Tenable was founded in September of 2002 and is privately held. Tenable was added to the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 in 2009 and 2010 and ranked one of the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America and ranked number 25 in the Fast 500 for the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Region. Tenable continues to grow at a rapid pace.

A key component of the new partnership between UMD and Tenable is the strategic advantage of their location. Maryland leads the nation in information technology jobs and more than half of the nation's internet traffic passes through the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. MC2 and Tenable intend to play an important role in helping to "connect the dots" in the region's burgeoning federal and private cyber initiatives. The nearby location of the nation's Cyber Command offers an added opportunity for public-private partnerships in cybersecurity to serve both the nation and the state.

"We are very excited to be an early partner with the University of Maryland's Cybersecurity Center," said Jack Huffard, president of Tenable. "We are looking forward to working closely with UMD and the other MC2 Center partners in tackling the serious cybersecurity issues facing our nation and our nation's enterprises."

About Tenable

Tenable Network Security is the leader in Unified Security Monitoring. Tenable provides agentless solutions for continuous monitoring of vulnerabilities, configurations, data leakage, log management and compromise detection. Tenable's award-winning products are utilized by many Global 2000 organizations and government agencies to proactively minimize network risk. For more information, please visit http://www.tenable.com/.