Cyber Security

George �鶹��Ƶ and King’s College London win Google Award to fight AI-driven romance scams targeting older adults

Nathan Kahl — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 23:23:41 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ and King’s College London win Google Award to fight AI-driven romance scams targeting older adults Nathan Kahl Sun, 10/26/2025 - 19:23

The term “catfishing” entered mainstream use with the release of the eponymous 2010 documentary investigating the practice of creating fake online personas, frequently to scam someone. Today, AI is pushing this practice to a frightening new level, with the prospect of older adults falling for what are called “romance scams.”

Sanchari Das, an assistant professor in �鶹��Ƶ’s Department of Information Sciences and Technology, and Ruba Abu-Salma, an associate professor in the department of computer science at King’s College London, received a $100,000 Google Academic Research Award to help keep older adults safe online. Their project, Scammed by Love: Toward Mitigating AI-Facilitated Romance Scams Against Older Adults Through Empirical and Cross-National Studies, will investigate the prevalence of such scams targeting older adults and will create educational tools to help them safely navigate dating apps.

The researchers will conduct a multi-national study spanning 13 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. Das, who has published research on older adults and their online dating habits, said, “We think about older adults in terms of health care needs, but we don't think about dating and romance. I learned that a majority of older-adult scams come from scam dating, and the victims cannot even share that it happened with their support networks, like their children, because it would be such a taboo and embarrassing thing to share.” Das added that an estimated $3 billion is lost each year in the United States to romance scams across all age groups, based on reported figures. “And that’s only what’s being reported.” Das is concerned that while romance scams are among the most prevalent forms of fraud affecting older adults, this population remains understudied in this context.

AI is making romance scams even harder to detect. iStock photo.

With roughly 12 percent of Americans over 70 having used a dating app or site, there is significant exposure for financial harm. Given the rapid advances in AI-generated images, video, audio, and simulated emotional expression, these attacks are increasing. One news story (of many) tells of a UK resident who scammed at least 10 female victims over 11 years out of 100,000 British pounds.

Abu-Salma, who has also published research on older adults and other at-risk groups, noted that according to a recent 2025 study by Lloyds Bank, “Individuals aged 55 to 64 are the most targeted age group, accounting for 20 percent of romance scam victims, followed by those aged 65 to 74, who represent18 percent of cases.”

In response to these risks, Das and Abu-Salma’s project will proceed in three phases. First, they will analyze data from focus groups and surveys of older adults in countries with high dating-app adoption. Second, they will develop educational safety materials. Third, they will hold in-person community workshops in the United States and the UK, partnering with older adult communities to refine and disseminate these materials. The team will work with organizations worldwide to share their findings online.

Das said she is excited about this collaboration and grateful to receive such highly competitive Google Academic Research Award in the Trust, Safety, Security, and Privacy research domain, noting, “We all know about deepfakes, but the bigger issue is that scammers are no longer just swapping faces. They are creating entirely new personas that feel real, so you may not even question whether the person you are talking to exists.” She added, “Our goal is to equip older adults with simple tools and support so they can connect online with confidence.”

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Sanchari Das

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Older Adults

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Artificial Intelligence

Anonymity’s ARX nemesis

Nathan Kahl — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 15:12:08 +0000

Anonymity’s ARX nemesis Nathan Kahl Mon, 10/20/2025 - 11:12

A team of faculty and students from �鶹��Ƶ recently discovered a vulnerability in a widely used anonymization tool. They presented their findings last week in Taiwan at the Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ACM CCS), one of the world’s most prestigious computer security conferences, with a very low paper acceptance rate.

The problem they discovered was with ARX, an open-source data anonymization tool, which provides what is referred to as k-anonymity. It is a commonly used tool in clinical settings to maintain data privacy. The discovery is particularly important at a time when more and more private data is being used in a variety settings and systems.

Evgenios Kornaropoulos, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, said, “Sometimes this type of microdata is very valuable. Tools like ARX anonymize the data so it’s compliant with HIPAA, and then that data can be shared with policymakers, engineers, scientists, and others who will make policy decisions and scientific studies based on this information.”

While many people receiving medical care are comfortable with their information being included in larger data sets for purposes of medical discovery, they likely do not want personal, identifiable information released.

“For patients, and especially those from more vulnerable or marginalized communities, data privacy is not an abstract concern, it’s deeply tied to trust in the health care system," said paper co-author Rebecca Sutter, a professor in the School of Nursing, and director of the MAP Clinics. "The integrity of tools like ARX matters because they underpin how we protect patient information while advancing public health research. When anonymization fails, it’s not only a technical vulnerability, it’s a human one."

Computer science PhD student Somiya Chhillar, lead author on the paper, said that the ubiquity of ARX was a reason they chose to study it. “We wanted to see how ARX really operates and how the algorithm works. While we were doing that, we realized that a few of the steps that it takes are very opportunistic, and because of that, it leaks information that we shouldn't be finding out by just looking at the anonymized data.”

Chhillar said that ARX follows a “greedy strategy,” explaining that there is a tension between privacy and utility. When data is shared, it should be useful without leaking information. The best metric for deciding the data usefulness is measured by information loss while the data is being made private. “The algorithm tries to minimize information loss while anonymizing the data, and ideally, we want the least possible information loss. And that's the greedy aspect of it; it's not always going for the most private, it’s just going for the most utility.”

This is what backfires, said Kornaropoulos, because experts (or attackers) can reverse engineer the anonymization steps the algorithm took throughout its execution to maximize utility and figure out properties of the data that were there before and after this anonymization step.

Kornaropoulos praised his student’s dedication to the discovery, noting that Chhillar “worked on this project for a while, and this code base of ARX is an elaborate tool, with thousands of lines of code. She had to go through it to truly internalize understand everything that's going on there,” he said.

The project was supported by a Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) grant from the program, “Securing Interactions between Humans and Machines,” and as a requirement of the grant, the project crossed different parts of the university. The College of Engineering and Computing collaborated with �鶹��Ƶ and Partners (MAP) Clinics, which provided the data.

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Evgenios Kornaropoulos

Rebecca Sutter, DNP, APRN, BC-FNP

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Bluetooth blues? George �鶹��Ƶ turns a bug into a big win

Nathan Kahl — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 01:28:32 +0000

Bluetooth blues? George �鶹��Ƶ turns a bug into a big win Nathan Kahl Wed, 08/20/2025 - 21:28

�鶹��Ƶ College of Engineering and Computing faculty members made a significant impact at the 2025 USENIX Security Conference, in Seattle, including winning the Distinguished Artifact Award.

Photo provided

“Tracking You from a Thousand Miles Away! Turning a Bluetooth Device into an Apple AirTag Without Root Privileges,” a paper by the Department of Computer Science’s PhD student Junming Chen, PhD candidate Xiaoyue Ma, and Lannan Luo and Qiang Zeng, both associate professors, won the prestigious Distinguished Artifact Award, which was granted to only six of the 2,385 submitted papers.

Their research demonstrated how to turn Bluetooth devices into a trackable "AirTags" without requiring root privileges. The research revealed a vulnerability in Apple's Find My Network that can leverage more than a billion active Apple devices as unwitting finders. The high-quality artifact with its complete documentation and practical implementation provides researchers with an invaluable toolkit for evaluating tracking vulnerabilities in crowd-sourced location networks. Their work was previously reported by the university and received media attention in various outlets.

A crowd gathers at the team's poster session. Photo provided.

USENIX Security is one of the country’s premier cybersecurity conferences, and this year received 2,385 paper submissions with a 17% acceptance rate. The following George �鶹��Ƶ research papers were also accepted at USENIX this year. 

Rowhammer-Based Trojan Injection: One Bit Flip Is Sufficient for Backdooring DNNs
Xiang Li, Ying Meng, Junming Chen, Lannan Luo, and Qiang Zeng, �鶹��Ƶ

DISPATCH: Unraveling Security Patches from Entangled Code Changes
Shiyu Sun and Yunlong Xing, �鶹��Ƶ; Xinda Wang, University of Texas at Dallas; Shu Wang, Palo Alto Networks, Inc.; Qi Li, Tsinghua University; Kun Sun, �鶹��Ƶ

TYPEPULSE: Detecting Type Confusion Bugs in Rust Programs
Hung-Mao Chen and Xu He, �鶹��Ƶ; Shu Wang, �鶹��Ƶ and Palo Alto Networks Inc.; Xiaokuan Zhang and Kun Sun, �鶹��Ƶ

LLMmap: Fingerprinting for Large Language Models
Dario Pasquini, RSAC Labs; Evgenios M. Kornaropoulos and Giuseppe Ateniese, �鶹��Ƶ

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One tiny flip that opens a backdoor in AI

Nathan Kahl — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 13:13:32 +0000

One tiny flip that opens a backdoor in AI Nathan Kahl Mon, 08/11/2025 - 09:13

A self-driving motor vehicle is cruising along, its numerous sensors and cameras telling it when to brake, change lanes, and make turns. The vehicle approaches a stop sign at a high rate of speed, but instead of stopping, it barrels through, causing an accident. The problem will probably never be found by investigators, but instead of reading the stop sign as a stop sign, the car had been hacked to see it instead as a speed limit sign.

According to research by �鶹��Ƶ’s Qiang Zeng, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, and PhD student Xiang Li and colleagues, it is remarkably simple for a would-be hacker to pull off such a feat.

“An attacker can selectively flip only one bit, and this changing of the bit from 0 to 1 allows an attacker to attach a patch onto any image and fool the AI system. Regardless of the original image input, that patched image will be interpreted as the attacker’s desired result,” said Zeng.

So, if the hacker wants an artificial intelligence (AI) system to see a stop sign as something else, or a cat as a dog, the effort is minimal. Consider a scene potentially pulled from a Mission: Impossible movie, where a corporate spy can pass himself off as a CEO, gaining access to sensitive information.

Zeng and colleagues presented a paper with the findings at USENIX Security 2025, one of the nation’s premier cybersecurity conferences.

AI systems have what’s called a deep neural network (DNN) as a key component. DNNs let AI handle complex data and perform many different tasks. They work by using numerical values, called weights, each typically stored in 32 bits. There are hundreds of billions of bits in a DNN, so changing only one is particularly stealthy, according to Zeng.

“Once the attacker knows the algorithm, then it can take literally only a couple minutes to make the change. And you won’t realize you’ve been attacked because the AI system will work as usual. Flipping one bit effectively sneaks a backdoor into AI, exploitable only by those who know the patch,” he said.

Prior work in this area typically added a patch tailored to the original image—for example, modifying a stop sign specifically so that it is misclassified as a 65 mph speed limit sign. This new research uses what’s called a uniform patch that works regardless of the original input; the hacker could cause the system to interpret various signs as a speed limit sign. This input-agnostic attack represents a newer and more dangerous threat.

When they began the project the researchers wanted to learn the minimum level of effort needed to launch such an attack, recognizing that flipping hundreds of bits is impractical and gets exponentially difficult. “It turned out, we only needed to flip one,” Zeng said with a laugh. The team named their attacking system, appropriately, OneFlip.

The researchers are now only looking at the implication for images, as image classifiers are among the most popular AI systems, though they suspect this hacking technique could also work for things like speech recognition. Zeng said that their success rate during testing was near 100% and stressed that all DNN systems are likely to be subject to such hacking.

This does not necessarily mean such hacking will run rampant. To launch the attack, Zeng said, there are two requirements: access to the exact weights (numerical values that the model learns during training of the AI system) and the ability to execute code on the machine hosting the model. For example, in cloud environments, attackers might exploit shared infrastructure where multiple tenants’ programs run on the same physical hardware.

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Unlocking privacy with encrypted ingenuity: Security expert receives NSF CAREER award

Nathan Kahl — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 17:32:18 +0000

Unlocking privacy with encrypted ingenuity: Security expert receives NSF CAREER award Nathan Kahl Mon, 01/27/2025 - 12:32

Evgenios Kornaropoulos, an assistant professor in �鶹��Ƶ’s Computer Science Department, focuses on computer security and applied cryptography, where he stays ahead of changes in the field. "The needs of everyday users have grown, and our technology's privacy expectations must advance accordingly,” he said. “We've moved beyond simply communicating sensitive data securely; now, we need technology capable of performing computations on sensitive data without compromising privacy.”

Evgenios Kornaropoulos. Photo provided

He recently received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award for $648,811 for his work on privacy and data security under the title “Encrypted Systems with Fine-Grained Leakage.”

The tension between the privacy of sensitive data and the functionality that users demand from their data is the focus of the NSF CAREER funding, and it has been among Kornaropoulos’ research areas for several years. He said, “The new technology that we are developing allows the user to never expose any information in the clear to the cloud while maintaining functionality. You want the cloud to do interesting computations for you without decrypting your information. If you don't decrypt, the cloud never gets to see what you are processing.”

When users store sensitive information, such as health records or financial data, with common cloud-based providers, the provider gains full access to the document's contents—essentially exposing the data in plain text to the cloud. A potential remedy is to encrypt the data before uploading it. However, this approach comes with a drawback: whenever users need to access or compute something from the encrypted data, they must download all the scrambled files locally and perform the computations on their own devices.

So how can the user still process the information but know that the cloud didn’t learn anything? “We believe that the answer is the notion of ‘cryptographic leakage’, he said. “The cloud provider still sees some accesses on encrypted data, that is, the leakage, but these observations are confusing. Our designs scale to today’s needs and come with provable guarantees that these observations cannot be meaningfully stitched together by the cloud provider to infer the sensitive data.”

Kornaropoulos said, “Searching on encrypted data is one of the biggest functionalities and we have a research thrust in which we will collaborate with industry leaders and local organizations on this problem. Specifically, we have an active collaboration with the �鶹��Ƶ and Partners Clinics (interprofessional clinics which serve the uninsured and refugee community within Prince William and Fairfax counties in Northern Virginia) to explore the application scenarios of our technology to that setting.”

"Privacy-preserving data storage and data use is an important problem in computer security that is of critical interest to organizations that must trust their sensitive data to third-party data storage facilities," said Computer Science department chair David Rosenblum. "Evgenios is an internationally renowned leader in addressing this problem, and his NSF CAREER award will afford him the opportunity to explore novel solutions that balance strong security guarantees against practical needs for efficiency."

The NSF CAREER award is reserved for the nation’s most talented up-and-coming researchers. From the NSF website: “The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program offers NSF’s most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.”

The award is the most-recent of several distinctions Kornaropoulos has earned. He was elevated to IEEE Senior Member in 2024, his paper was among the finalists for the “Best Cryptographic Attack” category at Pwnie Awards 2024, and his latest work at the intersection of AI and security has gained significant media attention.

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Evgenios Kornaropoulos

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Cyber savant hacks his way onto international team

Nathan Kahl — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 16:48:51 +0000

Cyber savant hacks his way onto international team Nathan Kahl Tue, 12/03/2024 - 11:48

Dylan Victor Knoff is president of the �鶹��Ƶ Competitive Cyber (MCC) club, a computer science major, and the kind of self-motivated hacker you might see rummaging through Goodwill bins, in his free time looking for a $4 router that he can use to bolster his resume.

“I’ll pull it apart and take the firmware off the chip. It's good fun, responsibly and ethically doing stuff to it, of course, and then reporting vulnerabilities,” he said.

The �鶹��Ƶ junior likes to examine routers because they are more likely than other devices to have detectable problems. Once he finds a vulnerability, per industry practice, he reports it to the vendor and then MITRE, the nonprofit that that catalogs firmware and software problems. Getting a mention on their common vulnerabilities and exposures listing looks good professionally for young cyber sleuths.

This ambition to make the cyber world a better, safer place is a theme in Knoff’s life. First, he started a Capture the Flag (CTF) team during high school, and then he attended a university cyber club while still a teen. When the Orlando native and first-gen college student could have chosen the local University of Central Florida, instead he left home for George �鶹��Ƶ, recognizing the university’s prowess in the field and the benefit of being close to potential employers in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan region. Knowing that breaking into cybersecurity is no Mickey Mouse endeavor, shortly after arriving in Fairfax he networked with the Battelle intern coordinator and subsequently landed a paid, full-time co-op with the STEM giant.

When he's not hacking routers, Knoff enjoys Shenandoah National Park

Knoff is on the U.S. Cyber Team and in October competed at the International Cybersecurity Challenge in Santiago, Chile. He said, “We competed against other countries’ teams in a two-day CTF, where one day was attack-and-defend, and the second day was on vulnerability assessment and exploit development.”

Knoff’s research focus is reverse engineering and vulnerability research. “I'll find something wrong with a specific device or framework and I'll find a ‘zero day,’ which is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor, and then I'll disclose it to them,” he said, indicating the standard industry practice.

For next year’s DistrictCon, a hacker conference in Washington, D.C., in February, Knoff and two members of MCC participated in the Junkyard Contest, where participants find vulnerabilities in devices; they discovered a stunning eight zero days on one router.

Knoff is giving a separate talk at the conference, on return-oriented programming, a way that hackers can get into a system by reusing code that already exists in a program. “I made this tool that utilizes computer emulation to analyze and visualize the memory side effects of elements that make up a return-oriented attack. Using data aggregation, these elements are then sorted based on their exploitation effects and made easily searchable to an operator.” He made the tool open source, available to anyone on GitHub, and is releasing an updated version the day of the talk.

On rare days when he’s not at a keyboard, Knoff enjoys getting outside, especially for a hike. “I love going to Shenandoah with my friends, doing Old Rag and White Oak,” he said, referencing two of the more popular—and challenging—Shenandoah National Park trails.

Currently he’s entertaining offers for two new co-ops, with the hopes of potentially spinning one of those into full-time employment. And whether scaling digital peaks or the rugged trails of Shenandoah, Knoff will find himself climbing…toward discovery and solutions in a safer cyber world.

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�鶹��Ƶ Competitive Cyber

computer science

Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP)

Students

Information technology students stepped up to secure Virginia’s elections

Teresa Donnellan — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 14:19:47 +0000

Information technology students stepped up to secure Virginia’s elections Teresa Donnellan Wed, 08/28/2024 - 10:19

Secure elections are the cornerstone of democracy, and the Virginia Cyber Navigator Internship Program (VA-CNIP) has equipped students with the skills to strengthen the cybersecurity posture of election infrastructures. As an intern last summer, information technology (IT) major Duong Thuy Nguyen helped secure a rural county's technology for the upcoming presidential election alongside two other George �鶹��Ƶ students, Maha Khan and Sophie Bates.

Sponsored by the National Security Agency (NSA) and run by the University of Virginia (UVA) and five other Virginia universities including George �鶹��Ƶ, VA-CNIP was developed to address the need for improved election security in localities that may not have the resources to implement necessary cybersecurity measures. In 2025, VA-CNIP received the Innovation Award from the Election Verification Network.

Nguyen, who is pursuing a dual concentration in database technology and programming and cyber security, traveled to Campbell County for a few days each week over the summer to support the county’s dedicated and hard-working IT staff in complying with the Locality Election Security Standards (LESS) required by the Commonwealth of Virginia. The LESS requirements are designed to ensure that all localities, regardless of size, have baseline cybersecurity measures in place, with further goals to achieve "preferred" or "premium" levels of security. The program thus not only prepared students for future careers but also left a lasting impact on the local governments they serve.

From left to right, Albanese, Hicks, and Nguyen with two other VA-CNIP interns. Photo provided.

George �鶹��Ƶ Associate Professor Max Albanese helped lead VA-CNIP, designing a course in election security that was a prerequisite for all interns. In addition to the course, a two-day boot camp at UVA provided interns with training, including hands-on activities and talks from high profile industry experts and election officials. This year United States Election Assistance Commissioner Thomas Hicks spoke at the boot camp.

“Especially this year, the focus was on trying to send interns to localities that were in most need of upgrading their security posture,” said Albanese, “and that means the more rural or less technologically advanced counties.”

Each week, students worked remotely for part of their assignments but also traveled to their assigned localities for on-site work. Due to the often-rural nature of the counties involved, VA-CNIP provided a $3,000 travel allowance to each intern in addition to their $9,000 stipend. This allowed students to travel long distances and, when necessary, stay overnight in nearby towns to avoid lengthy commutes. The George �鶹��Ƶ interns this year traveled about four hours one way to reach Campbell County.

Nguyen in Campbell County. Photo provided.

Nguyen noted how rewarding it was to work in-person with the local IT department. Her tasks included developing security policies, conducting research on cybersecurity tools, and even designing tabletop exercises to prepare local officials for possible cyber incidents on election day. Nguyen raved about her internship, which was her first. Even though she had to travel a lot, she said, she would not change her experience.

“They were all very welcoming, and they gave us all the support that we needed,” she said.

VA-CNIP exemplifies the power of academia, government, and students working together to tackle one of the most pressing challenges of our time—ensuring the security and integrity of democratic processes. While funding for VA-CNIP ends this year, there are ongoing discussions about sustaining the program going forward.

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Massimiliano Albanese

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information sciences and technology

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Cybersecurity Honors College student ready to hit the ground running

Nathan Kahl — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 17:59:19 +0000

Cybersecurity Honors College student ready to hit the ground running Nathan Kahl Mon, 08/12/2024 - 13:59

Jose Perez starts at �鶹��Ƶ this fall, majoring in Cyber Security Engineering and participating in the Honors College. But the Falls Church, Virginia native feels like he’s already a student, in a way.

“I’m familiar with so many of the faculty at this point because I participated in the Early Identification Program—I’ve been coming here for summer events since as early as 8th grade,” he said. “I’ve already formed a sense of community here. And as an International Baccalaureate student, I had college-level work for two years and so have decent academic preparation.”

He describes himself as a “STEM kid from the get-go,” and participated in cybersecurity-related extracurriculars in high school. “For me, it’s the best cross between raw engineering and computer science.” Being part of Meridian High School’s Cyber Patriots team exposed him to the challenges and opportunities in computer science.

Perez took part in the First Robotics Competition in high school. Photo provided

He burnished his high school resume with a lot of extracurriculars: He was the lead engineer on a Science Olympiad team, participated in George �鶹��Ƶ’s Youth Research Council, volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, and was a four-year participant in the urban farm project at his school.

Perez is the child of immigrants from the Philippines—both his parents are nurses—and he recognizes that opportunities presented here at George �鶹��Ƶ will allow him a great path toward upward mobility that he might not have at other institutions, especially being able to save money while living at home. “I knew I would be happy here and get what I need, especially because I feel like I've already formed a sense of community here.”

He’s ready and excited for what new changes are in place. “I’m aware of the new amount of freedom and responsibility I’ll have as a college student. I’ll just be prepared to take that on. I’m trying to push myself to do a lot this first semester and I’m part of the Global Gateway and will be going to Korea in my second semester. It will be a great way to throw myself in there.”

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�鶹��Ƶ redesignated as a National Center of Academic Excellence

Nathan Kahl — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 15:42:36 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ redesignated as a National Center of Academic Excellence Nathan Kahl Tue, 12/05/2023 - 10:42

�鶹��Ƶ was recently redesignated by the National Security Agency (NSA) as a National Center of Academic Excellence (NCAE) in Cybersecurity. This recognition continues a designation that has been in place since 1999 and makes �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Engineering and Computing eligible for special funding opportunities.

�鶹��Ƶ was redesignated in two categories: Cyber Defense (CAE-CD), valid through 2027, and Research (CAE-R), valid through 2028. �鶹��Ƶ is one of only seven schools that received a designation with the original cohort in 1999. The CAE in Cyber Defense is the longest-running designation of any program in the country.

NSA has curriculum requirements that a program must meet, involving a rigorous, peer-reviewed, multi-step application. Massimiliano (Max) Albanese, an associate professor and associate chair for research in the Department of Information Sciences and Technology and the associate director of the Center for Secure Information Systems, helps lead �鶹��Ƶ’s efforts in securing the designation.

According to the CAE Community website, “The CAE in Cyber Research designation indicates that (an) institution increases the understanding of robust cyber defense technology, policy, and practices that will enable our Nation to prevent and respond to a catastrophic event. The CAE in Cyber Defense designation indicates that (an) institution is helping reduce threats to our national infrastructure by promoting higher education and research in cyber defense as well as provide the nation with a pipeline of qualified cybersecurity professionals.”

Max Albanese (with plaque) with representatives from the FBI, NSA, and CISA

Albanese said, “To become eligible for the Cyber Defense designation, which is the education component of the NCAE program, a school has to have a validated program of study meeting NSA curriculum requirements; the one that allowed us to be eligible for the designation is our bachelor’s in information technology, with a concentration in cybersecurity.” To be eligible for the Research designation, a school must have a PhD program preparing students for research in cybersecurity, which at �鶹��Ƶ is the PhD in information technology. Albanese added that the university is currently preparing an application to also validate the college’s master’s in applied information technology.

“In addition to the prestige,” Albanese said, “an advantage of the designation is that we have access to exclusive funding opportunities. We’ve been receiving funds for the Cyber Security Scholarship Program (CySP) for many years, for example, which covers tuition, health insurance for doctoral students, laptops, a stipend, and more.” The program brings roughly $150-$200k annually for �鶹��Ƶ students. NSA funding that �鶹��Ƶ receives for other cyber-based projects is also contingent on the school having the CAE designation.

Albanese said, “�鶹��Ƶ’s NCAE designation isn’t just a badge of honor, it’s a testament to our commitment to excellence in cybersecurity education and research. Beyond the obvious financial benefits, being part of the CAE community is a catalyst for innovation and collaboration. The innovative Virginia Cyber Navigator Internship Program (VA-CNIP), managed by a coalition of NCAE-designated Virginia universities, is a prime example of how being part of this community translates into impactful initiatives and real-world experiences for our students.”

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Massimiliano Albanese

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CSIRTs protect cybersecurity; expand job opportunities

Rena Malai — Fri, 11 Mar 2022 20:05:11 +0000

CSIRTs protect cybersecurity; expand job opportunities Rena Malai Fri, 03/11/2022 - 15:05

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Sherif Hashem

Cybersecurity is a growing concern for anyone using technology—which is pretty much everyone. It’s an area that has seen tremendous research since the first global attacks surfaced in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Low-income countries can have challenges with getting appropriate cybersecurity protective measures in place and developing much-needed cybersecurity talents. To address this concern, George �鶹��Ƶ Information Sciences and Technology professor Sherif Hashem was part of a team that produced a report ‘Cyber Incident Management in Low-Income Countries.’ The report was funded by Global Affairs Canada, and presented last month in an international webinar by the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise.

According to Hashem, having Computer Security Incidence Response Teams (CSIRTs) in place can greatly help in handling and preventing cyber attacks. He says Computer Incidence Response is a term that popped up globally about 30 years ago, and it is associated with professionals who respond to the threats made over computer systems and networks.

“Established CSIRTs can help detect a cyber attack when it happens, and greatly minimize its impact,” Hashem says. “Cyber attacks against critical national infrastructure can be some of the most impactful as they can potentially affect everyone in society.”

One recent example is the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in 2021, the largest cyber attack on an oil infrastructure target in U.S. history, says Hashem.

“CSIRTs across the globe work together to mitigate such cyber attacks and help bring the criminals to justice,” he says. “Without CSIRTs in situations like this, the aftermath of a cyber attack can be devastating. It’s better to be prepared and minimize any losses; recover quickly.”

The ‘Cyber Incident Management in Low-Income Countries’ report showcases CSIRT models and structures that are workable within limited budgets. The report also provides guidance on developing technical skills within CSIRTs and highlights a wide range of training programs and tools.

“Our research findings can be used holistically by any entity looking to establish CSIRTs, whether there is a limited budget or not,” says Hashem.

The first CSIRT was created by Carnegie Mellon University over thirty years ago, says Hashem. Since then, the cybersecurity space has become an area rich with job opportunities. An estimated 400,000 open cybersecurity jobs are available today in the United States alone.

“I hope this motivates students to consider information security as a part of their education and career plan,” says Hashem. “The opportunities are endless.”

The full webinar is available to view on You Tube. Part 1 and part 2 of the report are also available to view.

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Cyber Security

College of Engineering and Computing

information sciences and technology

Information Sciences and Technology Department

Cyber Security

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