Academics specializing in information assurance gathered at the Radisson Hotel-Utica Centre Monday afternoon for the start of a two-day symposium on cybersecurity.

"This is the first step in bringing people together to understand each other's work and to start collaborating," said Fred B. Schneider, a Cornell University professor and chief scientist of the Griffiss Institute.

About 65 computer scientists and engineers from universities around the state -- including Syracuse University, SUNY Stony Brook, Binghamton University, Cornell University and Columbia University -- attended the invitation-only symposium concluding today.

U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-New Hartford, delivered the keynote address. Griffiss Institute members, including Executive Director J.K. Hage III and Chairman of the Board Michael Miravalle, also were in attendance.

Before the symposium began, Schneider said the two-day event would give academics from each university the opportunity to present an overview of the kind of research they're doing. Academics also would be given the opportunity to talk individually with each other.

Boehlert deemed the symposium the "formal kickoff" of the Griffiss Institute. A partnership of academia, business and government, the institute was established in September as a center for cybersecurity and information assurance research.

Schneider credited Air Force Research Laboratory Director Raymond Urtz as having conceptualized the Griffiss Institute.

"A group of us really tried to see what we could use to perform academic research and spur economic development and what we're undertaking today and tomorrow is just the beginning of that," Urtz said before Boehlert's keynote address.

Boehlert said the Griffiss Institute is especially important because cybercrime is "proliferating daily."

"Just last week, eight million credit card numbers were stolen," he said, referring to the security breach of an unidentified company that processes credit card transactions for merchants. "And those cards may be used for anything from frivolous purchases to funding terrorists."

Schneider said the Griffiss Institute would be "problem driven," meaning its research would focus on computer security problems encountered by the businesses and industries the institute partners.

Ultimately, officials hope the work performed by the institute will bring technology-based companies to the region.

"For me, this conference is doing well by doing good," Boehlert said. "That's because one of the goals of the Griffiss Institute is to improve the New York state economy, in general, and the Mohawk Valley economy, in particular."

The institute also plans to offer training sessions and is partnering with local academic institutions to train young people for careers in information assurance. The first training session this spring, Hage said.