Ms. Terry Benzel is the Managing Director of the Information Sciences Institute (ISI) at the University of Southern California. I manage all aspects of operations. I am responsible for finance, contracting, purchasing, IT, administrative staff, and communications/marketing. As a member of the ISI Leadership team, I contribute to defining and operationalizing the strategic direction for the Institute.

Previously, as Director of Networking and Cybersecurity Research at ISI, she managed a team of 70 researchers, faculty, students, and staff, responsible for research directions, development of research proposals to government funding agencies, and management of execution and finances. She established and led the DETER Cybersecurity Testbed and Experimentation program.

She is an IEEE Fellow recognized for leadership in establishing the field of cybersecurity experimentation.

She is a recognized leader in advanced technology, spanning government research labs, startups, industry, and academia. In multiple director roles, she led teams of 50-150 people and managed budgets up to $ 80M. As a strategic thinker, she contributes to business and organizational strategy and serves on advisory boards for leading organizations, helping shape their research and business agendas.

Prior to joining ISI, Benzel served as a division vice president at Network Associates, Inc. (McAfee). She led the advanced research organization, comprising 125 individuals, primarily focused on R&D projects for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and other federal entities.

Benzel has twice testified before the US House of Representatives Committee on Science about the importance of investing in cybersecurity research and its infrastructure. She serves as an advisor to government and industry on R&D strategy and roadmap development.

My main area of research is experimental cybersecurity. I lead research teams in creating advanced open infrastructure, methods, and widely available tools for cybersecurity experimentation. I oversee the design, development, promulgation, and operation of testbeds for cybersecurity experimentation and evaluation. Since 2004 I have been the principal investigator for the DETER Cybersecurity Testbed.  The DeterLab Cybersecurity Experimentation Testbed is a public resource that currently serves more than 1,000 researchers from 46 countries. It has also been extensively used for cybersecurity education and has impacted over 20,000 students.  Numerous publications, Master’s projects, and PhDs resulted from the use of DeterLab which has been operating since 2004 and is continuously undergoing hardware and software modernization to increase its capacity and experimental capabilities.

IEEE Computer Society Fellow
IEEE Computer Society Golden Core Member, 2022
IEEE Security and Privacy Magazine: AEIC Outstanding Service Award
US Department of Homeland Security Cyber is a Team Sport Award
USC Information Sciences Institute Achievement Award
IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Security and Privacy Computer Society Recognition for Outstanding Community Service
IEEE Computer Society Award for Continuing Service