Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Webcast Series SEI Members of Technical Staff

Traditionally, cybersecurity has focused on finding and removing vulnerabilities. This is like driving backward down the highway using your rearview mirror. Most breaches are due to defects in design or code; thus, the only way to truly address the issue is to design and build more secure solutions. In this webcast, Tim Chick discusses how security is an integral aspect of the entire software lifecycle as a result of following deliberate engineering practices focused on reducing security risks through the use of software assurance techniques.
What Attendees Will Learn:
• The importance of cybersecurity and examples of when security has failed
• Qualities to look at when evaluating third-party software
• The relationship between quality and security
• Engineering techniques used throughout the development lifecycle to reduce cyber risks

Modern analytic methods, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) classifiers, depend on correlations; however, such approaches fail to account for confounding in the data, which prevents accurate modeling of cause and effect and often leads to prediction bias. The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) has developed a new AI Robustness (AIR) tool that allows users to gauge AI and ML classifier performance with unprecedented confidence. This project is sponsored by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering to transition use of our AIR tool to AI users across the Department of Defense. During the webcast, the research team will hold a panel discussion on the AIR tool and discuss opportunities for collaboration. Our team efforts focus strongly on transition and provide guidance, training, and software that put our transition collaborators on a path to successful adoption of this technology to meet their AI/ML evaluation needs.
What Attendees Will Learn:
• How AIR adds analytical capability that didn’t previously exist, enabling an analysis to characterize and measure the overall accuracy of the AI as the underlying environment changes
• Examples of the AIR process and results from causal discovery to causal identification to causal inference • Opportunities for partnership and collaboration

There is a lot of documentation about a zero trust architecture, as well as directives that it be used for U.S. federal agencies and the Department of Defense (DoD), but little information on how to go about implementing it to improve an organization’s enterprise or DoD weapon system security. Use cases typically describe requirements for these systems, but they do not provide the contextual awareness that organizations need to help them create a prioritized roadmap to implement zero trust. In this webcast, Tim Morrow, Rhonda Brown, and Elias Miller discuss an approach that organizations can use to help develop the contextual awareness needed to apply a zero trust strategy.
What Attendees Will Learn:
Overview of a zero trust strategy Roadmap focusing on zero trust for the DoD Engineering approach for mission/workflow Use of a scenario to help reason about zero trust considerations Awareness of an upcoming SEI Zero Trust Industry Day event

According to the Verizon Data Breach Report, Log4j-related exploits have occurred less frequently over the past year. However, this Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) flaw was originally documented in 2021. The threat still exists despite increased awareness. Over the past few years, the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) has developed guidance and practices to help organizations reduce threats to U.S. supply chains. In this webcast, Brett Tucker and Matthew Butkovic, answer your enterprise risk management questions to help your organization achieve operational resilience in the cyber supply chain.
What attendees will learn:
Enterprise risk governance and how to assess organization’s risk appetite and policy as it relates to and integrates cyber risks into a global risk portfolio Regulatory directives on third-party risk The agenda and topics to be covered in the upcoming CERT Cyber Supply Chain Risk Management Symposium in February

We stand at a pivotal moment in software engineering, with artificial intelligence (AI) playing a crucial role in driving approaches poised to enhance software acquisition, analysis, verification, and automation. While generative AI tools initially sparked excitement for their potential to reduce errors, scale changes effortlessly, and drive innovation, concerns have emerged. These concerns encompass security risks, unforeseen failures, and issues of trust. Empirical research on generative AI development assistants reveals that productivity and quality gains depend not only on the sophistication of tools but also on task flow redesign and expert judgment.
In this webcast, Software Engineering Institute (SEI) researchers will explore the future of software engineering and acquisition using generative AI technologies. They’ll examine current applications, envision future possibilities, identify research gaps, and discuss the critical skill sets that software engineers and stakeholders need to effectively and responsibly harness generative AI’s potential. Fostering a deeper understanding of AI’s role in software engineering and acquisition accentuates its potential and mitigates its risks.
What Attendees Will Learn
• how to identify suitable use cases when starting out with generative AI technology
• the practical applications of generative AI in software engineering and acquisition
• how developers and decision makers can harness generative AI technology

Compliance standards, privileged access management, software bills of materials (SBOMs), maturity models, cloud services, vulnerability management, etc. The list of potential solutions to supply chain risk management (SCRM) challenges seems unending as much as it is daunting to address. In this webcast, Brett Tucker explores some of these solutions. More importantly, he renews an emphasis on using robust enterprise risk management to achieve operational resilience in the cyber supply chain.
What attendees will learn
A means of decomposing strategic objectives and critical services into high-value assets that point to prioritization of limited risk response resources Enterprise risk governance, appetite, and policy as they relate to and integrate cyber risks into a global risk portfolio The application and impacts of Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) and other regulatory directives on third-party risk A kick-off announcement about the SEI CERT Supply Chain Risk Management Symposium to be held in February 2024