Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Mason Competitive Cyber welcomes everyone — no experience needed

Martha Bushong — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 22:43:30 +0000

Mason Competitive Cyber welcomes everyone — no experience needed Martha Bushong Thu, 09/28/2023 - 18:43

Learn About Mason Competitive Cyber

Students choose ��ӽ紫ý for a variety of reasons. Computer science sophomore Jax Dunfee came to Mason because of its strong competitive cyber club. Dunfee’s interest in competitive cyber began in high school and has continued into his college years. “When I was looking for colleges, I saw that Mason had a competitive cyber team. So, I investigated it, thought it was cool, looked into it more, and joined when I got here. I've always been into cybersecurity and competitive cyber is a great way to improve my skills.”

The Mason Competitive Cybe r (MCC) club is open to all and though it mostly comprises students in technical majors, the club welcomes everyone. The group meets twice weekly—virtually on Wednesdays and in person on Fridays. The Friday meeting sometimes includes presentations or talks from industry sponsors or professionals.

The club also competes in person at events sponsored by other universities like Virginia Military Institute and Virginia Tech. In September, MCC hosted its own international Capture the Flag (CTF) event that attracted more than 3,000 participants and over 1,600 teams. If you’re looking for the heart and soul of MCC, you’ll find it at CTFs. They’re also one of the best ways to learn about hacking and cybersecurity.

Jax Dunfee, in center with teammates Biplav Gautam left, Dylan Knoff on right

“The events are how we put theory in practice,” said Dunfee. “In classes, a lot of times you learn programming that builds a baseline for what you'll be doing in the industry, but frequently you don't have a lot of time to do that--put that theory into practice. But with CTF you get hands-on activities with your teammates and others.”

Dunfee describes CTF as a variety of challenges that can range from web app exploitation, binary exploitation, cryptography, or reverse engineering forensics. Teams receive a challenge and a description, that they must solve and then get a flag, and the flags are redeemed for points. The team with the most points wins.

Students who are interested in learning more about MCC can check out the website or attend one of the meetings. “We’re always looking for members,” said Dunfee. No experience necessary.

"The Mason Competitive Cyber Club has been competing in CTFs, and winning, since they formed in 2016. The club leadership and members do an excellent job learning from each other and teaching skills to new members, so as older students graduate and new students roll in, they just keep getting better and have a great time doing it. Club alumni are getting excellent jobs in the cybersecurity world, and they regularly give back to the organization by visiting, talking to members, and hiring our graduates." Jim Jones, Director, Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis Center and MCC faculty advisor

Topics

computer science

Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP)

Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Cybersecurity

Students

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
��ӽ紫ý 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, ��ӽ紫ý 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 ��ӽ紫ý, Paula Sorrell.

Topics

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI)

Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Cybersecurity Research

Information Sciences and Technology Department

CEC faculty research

Drawing a diverse cybersecurity applicant pool

Martha Bushong — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 12:54:47 +0000

Drawing a diverse cybersecurity applicant pool Martha Bushong Thu, 10/06/2022 - 08:54

If you’re developing a program or event and want to learn how to attract a diverse audience, take a lesson from a recent Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) success story. This spring, the CCI Northern Virginia Node sponsored a traineeship and apprenticeship program that attracted about 400 diverse applicants for 21 positions.

On October 27 at 11 a.m. CCI NoVa Node Program Manager Jordan Mason will describe his successful outreach strategy, and provide a possible blueprint for you to follow, CCI’s Inclusion & Diversity Committee is sponsoring the event as part of its mission of workforce development which includes a commitment to increasing the number of underrepresented groups in the cybersecurity field.

Mason’s discussion will focus on strategies that the NoVa Node uses to field diverse cohorts in its programs, with a focus on its Cybersecurity Traineeship and Apprenticeship Program. These topics will include the identification of an ideal threshold in program representation and building relationships.

About Jordan Mason
Mason is a certified Project Management Professional who cares deeply about building systems and processes that promote equity and accessibility. Before working in his current role, he spent six years working in Student Affairs at George Washington University, helping the university’s portfolio of student organizations navigate institutional financial policies and processes.

Topics

Cybersecurity

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI)

Cyber

Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Cyber security engineering major competes at Deloitte CCI Cyber Camp

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 12:35:37 +0000

Cyber security engineering major competes at Deloitte CCI Cyber Camp Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/05/2021 - 08:35

Sophomore cyber security engineering major Samantha Barry takes every chance she can get to expand and hone her cyber security and computer science skills.

So when she heard about Deloitte’s partnership with the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) for the Deloitte CCI Cyber Camp, she jumped at the chance to compete, and she won third place for her efforts.

The Cyber Camp spanned across three Saturdays in July and August. “I heard about it from Professor Peggy Brouse,” says Barry. “I figured it would be a good opportunity to learn about different fields in cyber security over the summer.”

Participants worked on 42 challenges that taught and tested skills in cyber analytics, network traffic analysis, reverse engineering, and cryptography. They also participated in resume workshops and mock interviews.

“The professional development workshops were very valuable and gave me a leg up before I start applying to internships,” says Barry.

Barry’s favorite part of the entire camp was the cryptography challenges. CCI set up the challenges in a capture-the-flag format, and for the cryptography ones, students had to decipher codes at different levels of difficulty.

Barry finds cryptography interesting because of its ability to help people. Ever since she found an interest in programming and cyber security, she’s always wanted to use her skills to work in criminal justice. “Working for the FBI is my dream job, one that I hope I can achieve after Mason,” she says.

The other challenges in networking and cyber analytics were more challenging to Barry since she hadn’t been exposed to them as much. But she credits the Cyber Camp for showing her different possibilities in cyber security.

Fellow participants were from schools across the Commonwealth of Virginia like Northern Virginia Community college, Old Dominion University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech, and more.

The first and second place winners were both seniors; Jason Jabbour from the University of Virginia received first place, and Christian Jackson from Old Dominion University won second place.

“It was an honor to place in the Cyber Camp. There were a lot of great competitors,” says Barry. She says she is also interested in possibly participating again in the Cyber Camp.

The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative works to establish Virginia as a global leader in autonomous systems, security, and data. ��ӽ紫ý is the leader of the Northern Virginia Node of CCI.

Topics

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI)

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity Awareness Month