What's Happening at NIST: Curtis Barker

Chief of Computer Security Division Describes New Challenges Computer scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology are actively working on a number of projects aimed at helping federal agencies secure their IT systems. Helping direct those projects is Curtis Barker, chief of the Computer Security Division at NIST's Information Technology Laboratory. The division provides standards needed to protect federal government information systems against threats to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information and services. In an interview, Barker describes active projects underway in the division, including: Identifying information security processes that can be automated; Improving ways for federal information security managers to more easily identify controls NIST identifies as crucial to secure government IT; and Identifying the security challenges of Web 2.0 and cloud computing so federal agencies can safely implement these technologies. Barker has been at NIST for more than eight years, including the past three as division chief. At NIST, he previously headed its personal identity verification program. Before joining NIST, Barker spent 19 year in business holding a number of IT security and management jobs. Earlier in his career, he spent 11 years at the National Security Agency in a number of roles, including IT security analyst. Barker earned his bachelor degree from the University of Texas, Pan American, and master degree from Johns Hopkins University.