In the spotlight: Getting to know our IARU members
Dr Rui Brandao
Director of IT Services (Chief Information Officer), ETH Zürich
IARU Cybersecurity Group Lead
Rui has more than 25 years of experience in various IT functions with more than 18 years in management positions. Today he is the CIO of ETH Zürich and in this function is responsible for all central ICT infrastructures, applications, and services. The central ICT department currently employs around 350 people. Rui puts a special emphasis on encouraging women for apply for IT jobs and is a sponsor of the IT-Women@ETH network.
Rui has been leading the IARU Cybersecurity Forum since 2020. “Finding the balance between academic freedom and the need for efficiency and security in IT is a special challenge for all universities,” says Rui. “Cybersecurity remains an ongoing issue that requires constant attention. Ultimately, it is all about being better and faster than potential attackers.”
The Cybersecurity Forum held its first meeting in 2018 at NUS and 2019 at UCT. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the forum had to meet in a series of online meetings since 2020 and the annual meeting is finally planned to take place in June 2023 at ETH. The forum aims to create a mechanism for sharing knowledge, experience, and methodologies about cybersecurity in higher education, prompted by cyber-attacks on several universities.
The participants are currently focusing on two areas of interest: (1) management and governance aspects of cybersecurity and (2) technical methods for cyber detection and defence, on which the members of computer emergency response teams (CERT) are having lively exchanges.
Rui has been facilitating the online discussion during the Covid-19 pandemic. He is now looking forward to finally meeting the IARU participants in person. The forum in Zürich is planned to continue the discussions on both the management and CERT levels.
Cybersecurity Forum
- The IARU Cybersecurity Forum aims to facilitate exchange on cybersecurity topics between IARU members. It was initiated in 2018 at a 2-day inaugural event at NUS.
- Following the founding of the group, the primary topics have been sharing cybersecurity practices, collaboration on joint development of KPIs and benchmarks, the formation of virtual teams and the creation of a shared online platform.
- The next Cybersecurity Forum will take place on 13-15 June 2023 at ETH Zürich.