Cybersecurity

Enabling critical research through cutting edge security

The National Center for Computational Sciences hosts a global community of users solving some of the world's largest scientific challenges, and a secure computing environment is critical to their successful research. Users and industry partners are supported by a cybersecurity team that monitors systems 24/7 and administers data management platforms to ensure compliance in regard to security, operations, and the laboratory as a whole. In 2021, NCCS introduced CITADEL, a framework of security protocols that allows researchers to use supercomputing for projects that involve protected data. This unprecedented framework, which was the result of a collaboration among the HPC Cybersecurity and Information Engineering group, the HPC Scalable Systems group, the Scalable Protected Data Facilities in NCCS, and ORNL's Information Technology Services Division, directly supports projects from the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Institutes of Health. Both programs use sensitive personal health data for critical research in areas such as veterans' health and cancer surveillance and reporting.