UA seeks donor for institute

Cybercrime and terrorism planned focus of research

FAYETTEVILLE — A proposal for a new University of Arkansas research institute devoted to cyberterrorism and cybercrime has been submitted to an anonymous donor, according to the university.

UA would create a cybercrime database for the state attorney general’s office as part of the proposal. For the attorney general, the project would be “a resource for investigators to easily access a database containing names and in particular cyber crime information,” Judd Deere, a spokesman for Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, wrote in an email.

Deere said the attorney general’s office has committed $100,000 to support the proposal, with the money coming from settlements in previous litigation involving the office.

The proposed UA cyberterrorism/cybercrime

institute hinges on additional funding from the anonymous donor, based on university documents.

The university declined to name the donor or release the proposal. Mark Rushing, a UA spokesman, in an email said the donor is a foundation.

A document from UA’s Terrorism Research Center, on campus since 2003, stated the center “submitted a proposal to an anonymous donor to create a specialized ‘institute’ focusing on cyberterrorism and cybercrime.”

The proposal calls for “interdisciplinary, undergraduate and graduate certificate programs in cybersecurity and intelligence analysis,” according to the document prepared by the center.

The document that discussed the proposed institute was a summary of center activity that was put together to help UA’s ongoing planning process under new Chancellor Joe Steinmetz. Other departments submitted similar documents.

The center’s summary stated the proposal “was accepted for funding, but a delay in obtaining matching money” halted the donor’s gift. The document continued: “We expect this opportunity to remain available this year and are hopeful of receiving these funds later this fall.”

Rushing, in an email, said the donor is now reviewing the proposal with no timetable for a decision.

The Terrorism Research Center, led by Brent Smith, hosts what’s known as the American Terrorism Study.

The project “provides a comprehensive record of persons indicted in federal courts as a result of FBI ‘terrorism enterprise’ investigations,” according to the center’s website. It’s also described as “the nation’s longest running research project on terrorism in the United States.”

The proposed cyberterrorism and cybercrime institute would include researchers from the university’s Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies and computer scientists from the university’s Center for Information Security and Reliability, according to the document prepared by the center.

Smith did not respond to email and phone requests for an interview.

“The nation’s networks, communications, and data are increasingly at risk from diverse and persistent threats,” Adm. Michael Rogers, chief of the National Security Agency, told Congress last year.

The threat of cyberterrorism in part depends on how the term is defined, said Meg King, director of the Digital Futures Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.

“We haven’t had an incident connected to cyber that is a massive loss of life,” King said. She said she’d estimate the number of true cyberterrorism attacks at “very, very few.”

Terrorist groups thus far have not been making cyberattacks a priority, she said.

UA, in declining to release the proposal, cited an exemption in the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act for records that give an advantage to competitors or bidders.

“The requested proposal, if released, would harm the University’s ability to compete with other entities for scarce funding resources, including disclosure of craft knowledge developed by the University,” a university spokesman said in declining a request for disclosure.

The university cited Arkansas Code Annotated 2519-105 (b)(9)(A), which says files that shall not be made public include those “that if disclosed would give advantage to competitors or bidders and records maintained by the Arkansas Economic Development Commission related to any business entity’s planning, site location, expansion, operations, or product development and marketing, unless approval for release of those records is granted by the business entity.”

The search for a sponsor comes as public universities are receiving less money from state and federal governments, said Jennifer Victor, an associate professor of political science at George Mason University.

Schools “are pretty much forced to look for other types of funding,” said Victor, who serves on the board of the Center for Responsive Politics. The nonprofit organization tracks the influence of money in politics and public policy.

She said a donation broadly earmarked for counterterrorism research would be appropriate.

“But what you want to be suspicious of are restrictions on donations that would restrict academic freedom in some way,” Victor said.

Rushing, in an email, said “it wouldn’t be appropriate to speculate about any potential restrictions” associated with the donor’s gift.

Before UA establishes a new institute, a review takes place involving faculty, academic deans, Steinmetz and UA System officials, including the university’s board of trustees, Rushing said.

UA and Michigan State have partnered on a proposal to the National Institute of Justice. The project would involve studying policing and terrorist plots, according to the Terrorism Research Center document.

Elsewhere in Arkansas, the National Cybersecurity Preparedness Consortium, formally established in 2014, consists of five members that include the Little Rock-based Criminal Justice Institute, part of the UA System. The consortium has received various federal grants, including $3 million last year from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.