Cybersecurity Research

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative CATAPULT fund launches translational research projects

Martha Bushong — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 18:18:33 +0000

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative CATAPULT fund launches translational research projects Martha Bushong Thu, 10/06/2022 - 14:18

In This Story

Liza Wilson Durant

Learn About the CCI

As researchers and their teams work to answer questions and find solutions for protecting privacy and securing information through cybersecurity innovation, many set their sights on commercialization. Still, the path from research ideas to consumer products can be long and winding. To help straighten the path the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) is supporting a Cyber Acceleration, Translation, and Advanced Prototyping for University Linked Technology (CATAPULT) Fund. The fund’s purpose‑‑advance collaborative translational research projects among CCI partners, to speed up the progress of academic research outcomes to the marketplace.

"It is truly exciting to tap into the breadth of innovation from academic institutions across the Commonwealth and introduce these faculty inventors to the opportunity to expand the impact of their research through commercialization,” says Liza Wilson Durant, associate dean, strategic initiatives and community engagement, College of Engineering and Computing. “It is just the right time for Virginia to support and accelerate cybersecurity innovation as the Commonwealth establishes its role as a magnet for new companies with the best and brightest solutions to the nation's greatest cybersecurity challenges."

In July 2022 CCI awarded seven teams from four universities in the Northern Virginia Node funding for their projects. These research teams received up to $50,000, with funding increments released based on the achievement of agreed-upon milestones. The teams and their projects are as follows.

Protecting Smartphones from Fingerphoto Spoofing
��AV Assistant Professor Emanuela Marasco’s the project addresses the urgent need for a mechanism that properly secures smartphone technology. Contactless fingerprint authentication allows faster capture times, unattended operations, and high hygiene. These systems, however, are still in the early stages of development. Although researchers are advancing matching, the risk of spoofing for contactless authentication must be mitigated as well. This project addresses the problem.

Distributed Online Intrusion Detection System for IoT devices via Power Side-channel Auditing
As the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has increased rapidly, IoT botnets and information stealer attacks have exploited the vulnerabilities of IoT devices. It is still challenging, however, to detect the initial intrusion on IoT devices before massive attacks. Professor Gang Zhou, from the College of William & Mary, and his partners at Old Dominion University are addressing the challenge of the lack of accurate models in real-time for ubiquitous attack detection with their project.

Algorithm Evaluation for Backdoor Detection and Mitigation in Remote Sensing Systems
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has advanced to the point that it is inescapable in life and work. AI models extract knowledge from data to make decisions. Though AI has achieved state-of-the-art performances for many applications, it can be easily deceived by the backdoor attack. Old Dominion University Professor Jiang Li and his partners at Maxar’s project leverages a novel approach to addressing this concern.

RF Fingerprinting Techniques for Millimeter-Wave Device Authentication in 5G/NextG Wireless Communication
Millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology is a key enabler for 5G and NextG wireless communications as it supports applications that require high-throughput and ultra-low latency. Due to the broadcast nature of the wireless medium, however, mmWave communication is vulnerable to various attacks. With this project Kai Zeng, associate professor, ��AV and his team aim to develop robust and efficient techniques to address these vulnerabilities.

Extended Reality Empowered 5G Telemedicine Mentoring
Old Dominion University Associate Professor Sachin Shetty’s project looks at the development and commercialization of a 5G telemedicine platform that leverages Extended Reality technologies and a 5G environment. Because 5G technology supports massive capacity connections and fast data rates it has the potential to transform healthcare training and service delivery. One example, 5 G-enabled telemedicine, connects remotely located medical providers and allows access to near real-time data, and permits split-second decision-making critical in health care environments.

Super Timelines
When a cybersecurity incident occurs, analysts need to quickly construct a forensic timeline of events to assess the impact and plan the response. This effort typically involves extracting logs and other artifacts from various sources and then combining them into a single list, ordering them by date and time. Only then can an analyst look for clues to help better understand the course of events before, during, and after the incident. With Super Timelines, Florian Buchholz, professor at James Madison University, and his partners at Gigasheet (https://www.gigasheet.com) will develop a turnkey solution for this problem, based on a modern cloud-based infrastructure.

“Without this funding from CCI, the research and start-ups that are so critical to Virginia’s strategy of building a high-impact cyber economy would not have the opportunity to meet the wonderful members of the tech community who have rallied around them to provide advice, guidance, and structure to launching new products and companies,” says Associate Vice President of the Office of Research Innovation and Economic Development, at ��AV, Paula Sorrell.

Topics

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI)

Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Cybersecurity Research

Information Sciences and Technology Department

CEC faculty research

Foteini Baldimtsi earns NSF CAREER Award

Martha Bushong — Mon, 16 May 2022 15:05:16 +0000

Foteini Baldimtsi earns NSF CAREER Award Martha Bushong Mon, 05/16/2022 - 11:05

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Foteini Baldimtsi

Computer Science, Assistant Professor, Foteini
Baldimtsi.

George Mason Department of Computer Science Assistant Professor Foteini Baldimtsi has been granted a National Science Foundation CAREER Award for her project, Privacy Preserving Transactions with Accountability Extensions.

Baldimtsi recently discussed the ubiquity of cryptography. “We use cryptography every single day. Every time you log in to your email or make a transaction with your bank, you use cryptography. Data do not fly around unencrypted.”

Even so, certain types of interactions require people to offer up more data than they might be comfortable with. She gave a non-digital example of buying alcohol at a store, noting that a vendor simply needs to know if a buyer is over 21. When the buyer shows a driver’s license, the vendor can learn a customer’s full name, address, and exact date of birth, even though they didn’t need that information for the transaction. Using cryptographic techniques, she seeks to create digital credentials that only prove the necessities for a particular interaction. Such “zero-knowledge proofs,” she says, “lets me prove something to you about my identity, while keeping the rest of the stuff hidden.”

Privacy has a price, one of which is speed. She said, “A big part of my CAREER award is how to make privacy techniques practical by being faster and more efficient.” She is particularly looking at anonymous payments. A credit card company, for example, may know that someone is buying coffee from Einstein’s Bagel in the Nguyen Engineering Building every day, though they only need to be able to process a financial transaction. “If you pay with cash, your bank only knows you withdrew a sum of money, but no one knows where or how you’re spending that money. Using a credit card is so much more convenient than paying with cash,” she said. “The question is, using our credit cards or our phones, can we maintain the same level of privacy? The answer is yes.”

Digital privacy has regulatory consequences. “There is a tension between privacy and the ability to enforce the law,” she noted. “If we make everything completely private, there are regulatory issues, so I’m trying to design auditable or accountable schemes that ensure the following - as long as users obey the law, their privacy is maintained. If they break the law - under some well-defined notion of what the law says - their privacy will be lifted.” A key part of her grant, she said, is tackling the challenge of determining ways to mathematically formulate the law. To assist with this, she will be collaborating with the Mason policy and business schools.

From her abstract: “The amount of digital data collected electronically is increasing and poses threats to user privacy. Cryptographic mechanisms enhancing data privacy suffer from prohibitive computational and communication costs and do not offer accountability mechanisms. Towards the goal of bringing privacy-enhancing technologies closer to adoption, this project defines and constructs new cryptographic building blocks like: new types of digital signatures, cryptographic accumulators, and zero-knowledge proofs, which are at the core of mechanisms used to enhance privacy.”

The award totals more than $500K and the award period is from July 2022 to June 2027.

Topics

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity Research

cryptography

computer science

Research

At the Cross-Roads of Health Policy and Information Technology - Cybersecurity and Healthcare Data: What Executives and Policy Makers Need to Know Event Held in Arlington

John Brandon Cantrell — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 18:59:20 +0000

At the Cross-Roads of Health Policy and Information Technology - Cybersecurity and Healthcare Data: What Executives and Policy Makers Need to Know Event Held in Arlington John Brandon C… Wed, 10/06/2021 - 14:59

Topics

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity Research

Health Information Technology

Department of Health Administration and Policy

Arlington Forward

CHHS News

Tech Talent Investment Pipeline (TTIP)

TTIP

Tech Talent Investment Program

In This Story

PJ Maddox, EdD, MSN, RN

Alison Evans Cuellar, PhD, MBA

Department of Health Administration and Policy Partner with Healthcare Technology Network (HealthTechNet) and Arlington Forward to Host a Successful Event.

The cybersecurity event provided attendees with networking opportunities, a keynote presentation, and a panel of cybersecurity experts discussing the top concerns in the federal, state, and private sectors.

Cyberattacks have become a pervasive threat in the health care industry. As more hospitals, clinics, and other health care organizations rely on technology for storing confidential medical records and delivering patient care, cyberattacks can jeopardize the safety and health of millions of individuals, making cybersecurity a priority for protecting public health.

As leaders in health administration, policy, and informatics, Mason’s Department of Health Administration and Policy (HAP) partnered with Healthcare Technology Network (HealthTechNet) and Arlington Forward to address this important issue and help professionals learn about the latest cybersecurity concerns in health care—and what to do about it.

On September 23, information technology (IT), cybersecurity, and health care professionals across the DMV region gathered in Mason's Van Metre Hall in Arlington, Virginia, for “Cybersecurity and Healthcare Data: What Executives and Policy Makers Need to Know,” hosted by HAP, HealthTechNet, and Arlington Forward.

"It was a pleasure to moderate this panel of experts," said Alison Cuellar, HAP professor and the event moderator. "Cybersecurity in health care has become hugely important. As we learned from our panelists, it's more than a data security issue; for providers, it can mean patient safety, too. And the state, federal, and private partners are working to address this important challenge."

Connecting, Collaborating, and Gaining Insight from Leading Cybersecurity Experts

The event offered attendees a valuable opportunity to network with a wide range of professionals dedicated to improving cybersecurity practices in their organizations. More than 100 professionals registered for the event.

PJ Maddox, HAP department chair, welcomed attendees and noted the significance of partnering with like-minded organizations to create an event where professionals can connect, collaborate, and gain insight from leading cybersecurity experts.

Keynote speaker Robert Wood, chief information security officer at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, spoke about simplifying cybersecurity processes throughout his career and encouraged attendees to be flexible and adaptable to meet the fast-paced changes in cybersecurity successfully.

The panel provided a robust conversation on the public and private sectors' cybersecurity concerns. Alison Cuellar guided the discussion regarding current threats through the unique lens of each panelist, resulting in a well-rounded perspective on how cybersecurity affects all areas of health care and individual citizens.

Top Cybersecurity Concerns for Federal, State, and Private Sectors

John Riggi, senior advisor for cybersecurity and risk at the American Hospital Association, spoke on how the pandemic created vulnerabilities at hospitals throughout the country and the move to increased telehealth delivery created new opportunities for hackers to take advantage of weaknesses in cybersecurity – resulting in security breaches that affected millions of patients.

John Guerriero, a senior policy analyst in Homeland Security & Public Safety at the National Governors Association, discussed how cyberattacks affect the public’s trust in state government and the state executives’ focus on policies that protect patient data.

Looking to the future, Melina Scotto, chief information and security officer at General Dynamics Information Technology, focused her discussion on how private sectors can be proactive in cybersecurity by investing in educational pathways for students to become experts in cybersecurity engineering.

What's Next for HAP, Arlington Forward, and HealthTechNet

The event was one in a series of seminars on the most pressing issues at the intersection of information technology and health care.

"At HealthTechNet, we are proud of our growing collaboration with ��AV and its Department of Health Administration and Policy," said Jim Oakes of HealthTechNet and adjunct faculty at Mason. "Several HAP faculty members were instrumental in the growth of HealthTechNet over twenty years ago, and we are grateful for their ongoing support and contributions to our programs. We are delighted to have put on this joint program and look forward to working together in the future."

Secure manufacturing saves energy and protects businesses

Martha Bushong — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 16:36:05 +0000

Secure manufacturing saves energy and protects businesses Martha Bushong Thu, 04/15/2021 - 12:36

In This Story

Paulo Costa

Duminda Wijesekera

Paulo Costa (on right) with his team in the RARE Lab.

Cybersecurity experts from Mason’s College of Engineering and Computing are playing an important role in protecting American manufacturing automation and supply chains from cyber threats and designing better security into advanced manufacturing plants.

Through its membership with the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CyManII, pronounced sī-man-ē), researchers will focus on developing an integrated cybersecurity architecture and achieving significant energy efficiencies in manufacturing.

The institute is led by the University of Texas at San Antonio and has an initial 5-year budget of $111 million, including $70 million from the U.S. Department of Energy. The remaining budget is comprised of cost-sharing, member contributions, and other factors that together will ensure the self-sustainability of CyManII after this initial period.

As a managing member, Mason is overseeing and operating CyManII’s East Coast headquarters on the Arlington Campus. The headquarters will house the institute’s primary offices, meeting space, and training facilities for the National Capital Region.

“The Arlington facility will house lab space and equipment to demonstrate, test, and validate CyManII’s emerging cybersecurity and advanced manufacturing technologies and products,” says Associate Professor and Vice President for Securing Automation and Supply Chain Paulo Costa. “Our proximity to the Department of Energy and Washington, D.C. will be useful to visitors when we return to in-person meetings and events.”

The 13,000-square-foot facility supports robotic platforms that evaluate security vulnerabilities, the impact of 5G on autonomous vehicles, the power grid, smart buildings and cities, and smart manufacturing. The space will also host a robotic smart manufacturing testbed and provide meeting and temporary office space for visiting researchers and staff.

Other benefits of filling the role of managing partner include representation on the governance board for leadership on strategic directions, planning, prioritization, and key programming.

Mason will participate in road mapping efforts and strategic decisions about investments, technical focus, and projects. Mason faculty will also gain complimentary access to CyManII events, tech showcases and meetings, and participate in annual RFP competition with extensive outreach promoting completed projects/technologies.

Mason researchers from the College of Engineering and Computing, who are setting up the lab, are playing key roles in CyManII’s first-year projects, finding ways to protect manufacturing automation and supply chains from cyber threats, and designing better security into advanced manufacturing plants.

In one of the projects, Professor Duminda Wijesekera, CyManII’s Coordinated Vulnerability Awareness Lead, is working with Bo Yu, research assistant professor, and Matt Jablonski, a PhD candidate and research assistant, to study Smart Manufacturing Architecture (SMA).

SMA has the potential to make American manufacturing more productive, more energy-efficient, more competitive, and verifiably correct. “We hope our research in Smart Manufacturing Architecture provides the backbone for modeling that will speed up the adoption of these technologies and processes and help companies to create new, secure, integrated systems,” says Jablonski. “We know that the sooner we can identify risks, the better we can help manufacturers mitigate the risks.”

The team’s work addresses potential methods for formally analyzing safety and security risks in Automated Manufacturing Systems. They emphasize how to identify components and the communication interfaces and components that can be modeled using formal methods.

Recently the team used an automated manufacturing system that produces aluminum cans to show how these processes are modeled using a suite of formal methods that included Linear Time propositional Temporal Logic, Architecture Analysis, and Design Language, as well as fault and attack tree analysis.

“This work is some of the most exciting work I’ve ever done,” says Yu. “The real-world application of this knowledge has tremendous impact. This modeling and what it does can protect the reputation of a business by finding weaknesses early on.”

As CyManII’s work becomes more established, the research enterprise will expand and grow into additional areas, such as other cyber-physical systems that directly control physical processes such as machinery, vehicles, cranes, and other movable infrastructure.

“Formal guarantees are needed in secure manufacturing automation because, in their absence, there is no acceptable way to guarantee against failures that occur due to malice and natural faults,” says Wijesekera. “These failures can affect the operational safety of machinery, operators, and the equipment that uses manufactured parts, resulting in wasted material and energy.”

Topics

Department of Cyber Security Engineering

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity Research

CyManII

Mason Momentum