Society of HPC Professionals Launches Cybersecurity Center of Performance in Washington, D.C.

HOUSTON, TX--(Marketwired - Dec 8, 2015) - The Society of HPC Professionals, an association established to provide a technical forum in the field of High Performance Computing (HPC), has announced the formation of the HPC in Cybersecurity Center of Performance located in Washington, D.C.

"The HPC in Cybersecurity Center of Performance (CoP) is an educational chapter focused on bringing together members of the private sector, government and academia engaged in the intersecting technologies of HPC and cybersecurity," said Maryam Rahmani, CoP Director.

From its Washington, D.C., headquarters, the HPC in Cybersecurity CoP seeks to foster interdisciplinary collaboration on technical and policy initiatives now being developed to address the growing number of cyberthreats and cyberattacks. With individual member support and institutional sponsorship, the CoP will host conferences, webinars and Lunch-and-Learn seminars on a regular basis.

The HPC in Cybersecurity CoP will have two primary goals for its educational outreach activities. First, it will advance and promote the adoption of HPC technology to prevent cyberattacks on vital assets and infrastructure. These cybersecurity applications of HPC will focus on, but not be limited to, the domains of oil/gas, utility, healthcare, finance/banking, advanced manufacturing and retail marketing.

"In the interconnected age of e-commerce and the Internet of Things, the threats from cyberattacks have expanded from personal data and privacy to intellectual property and industrial control systems," said Rahmani.

Cyber intruders are increasingly targeting intellectual property, such as proprietary workflows, algorithms and business processes -- information that can potentially be stolen much faster from a computer network than a large data file. And many other attacks in cyberspace seek to exploit vulnerabilities in sensors and actuators that manage, for example, the electrical grid. HPC technology is uniquely positioned to defend against these hit-and-run incursions.

"HPC technology has the capability to simultaneously monitor thousands of entry points into a vast computer network, detect potential threats and anomalies, and shut down the attack before further damage can be inflicted," said Rahmani. "Through predictive analysis, HPC technology can even predict when and where the next cyber intrusion is likely to occur."

The second major objective for the Center of Performance is to take a leadership role in developing processes and best practices that will keep HPC platforms safe from cyberattacks. Often referred to as supercomputers, HPC systems along with their software and applications require cyber protection protocols customized to their unique architecture.

The Society of HPC Professionals (SHPCP) formally announced the creation of the HPC in Cybersecurity CoP at the society's Annual Technical Meeting held December 2, 2015, in Houston, Texas. Society president Earl J. Dodd said the HPC in Cybersecurity CoP is the first of several planned domain-specific chapters to be launched by the SHPCP.

For more information on the SHPCP and the Cybersecurity CoP, visit the website at www.hpcsociety.org/cybersecurity.

About the Society of HPC Professionals (www.hpcsociety.org)
The SHPCP is an association of individuals, corporations, academic institutions, and government entities that share a common interest in High Performance Computing (HPC) technology, or supercomputing. As a professional society, the SHPCP's sole purpose is to promote the common business and technology interests of its members. The SHPCP organizes and conducts open forum meetings that address the use, availability and evaluation of existing technology and introduce emerging technology to the HPC community and beyond.