Insights from the USA: Exploring Cybersecurity Through the IVLP Program
In the fall of 2024, I was away on leave for three weeks as the embassy invited me to attend a professional program in the United States, which was fully paid by the US State Department. This was organized in the “Promote cybersecurity” project, which is part of the more than 60-year-old International Visitor Leadership Program. The Embassy of the USA in Budapest selected and invited one expert from each of 15 European countries. During the three-week trip, we met the professionals and leaders of numerous organizations, attended many official and cultural programs and also had the opportunity to watch the elections as closely as possible on the spot.
The goal of the program was that representatives of certain special fields in states cooperating with the USA should learn and understand how the given activity works on the American side. Learning about the organizations, their leaders and methods is expected to improve cooperation and develop professional, scientific, economic and cultural relations.
We started in the capital, where we achieved a double goal: on the one hand, we learned about the political, legal and administrative functioning of the country, and on the other hand, we met the federal organizations that are most important to us in the cybersecurity profession. So, we visited the Pentagon (Department of Defense), the Truman Building (Department of State) and met professionals of the DHS (Department of Homeland Security), CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) and NIST. We also went to the Georgetown University and had a workshop with a professor from the National Defense University.
Next came Florida, one of the most populous states, the center of space research, the scene of very successful university research and an important technology center as, for example, the largest gaming development companies are also located here. Of course, tourism is also important as many people visit, for instance, the Disney and Universal parks.
Here, we saw the technology sector, the incubator in Orlando as well as visited the UCF university and the Kennedy Space Center. Then came Denver at an altitude of 1,500 meters, followed by Colorado Springs at 2,000 meters, located at the eastern foot of the Rocky Mountains, on a dry plateau. The state is located practically in the middle of the USA, at a well-protected place, with cool, predictable weather, so perhaps it is understandable why it is such an important place, for example, for the air force and also for cybersecurity; at the same time, it is a significant business center with its skyscrapers, and lately it has become very successful in sports (NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB). Here, we had the opportunity to understand and personally observe the technical details of the elections as well as to meet the deputy attorney general, the city and county CISO and seven lawyers specializing in data protection.
Seattle is located almost at the Canadian border, with wet and pleasant weather, wealthy neighborhood and important industrial areas thanks to the huge companies that have settled there. The most interesting thing for us was the presence of Microsoft, and we also had the opportunity to visit the cyber defense and cybercrime center. At the same time, we also visited the county's emergency control center, which also serves as a center for cyber-physical events; we consulted with the leaders of the OT security department and the undergraduate and graduate students of the local Everett Community College and discussed practical experiences and the possible effects of the election results (Trump) that we witnessed right on the spot with the lawyer of the international law firm K&L Gates specializing in cybersecurity matters. We also evaluated the three weeks at a workshop and, of course, toured the city.
If you are interested in more information and in the conclusions, you can read the longer summary and a series of articles on the subject that will be published soon.
