Cyber Security

Mason wins VMI Cyber Fusion event

Rena Malai — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 15:23:45 +0000

Mason wins VMI Cyber Fusion event Rena Malai Wed, 03/02/2022 - 10:23

In This Story

The Mason team poses with the first place trophy after winning VMI's Cyber Fusion event.

Mason Patriots won Commonwealth Cyber Fusion, an event that combines a collegiate cyber competition with learning and career opportunities.

George Mason University students competed in the event last weekend and again claimed first place, a position Mason has maintained from the previous Cyber Fusion. Mason representatives at Cyber Fusion included Henry Coffman, member of the Virginia Cyber Range Executive Committee, and Jim Jones, Mason faculty advisor.

The students who competed in the event are a part of Mason’s Competitive Cyber club, sponsored by the Cybersecurity Engineering (CYSE) department and coached by Jones. A number of members in the club are also students in the CYSE program.

Peggy Brouse, CYSE professor, says she is very proud of the winners’ continuing efforts and their achievements as representatives of Mason.  

“Once again, our CEC students from both the Cyber Security Engineering and the Computer Science departments brought home the first place trophy from the Cyber Fusion conference,” says Brouse. “The students they competed against are from top-ranked cyber schools which makes the accomplishment even more noteworthy.”

The students self-formed the Mason Competitive Cyber club which plays a large part in their successes, she says.  

“Especially impressive is that the club welcomes all students to learn about and practice for competitions regardless of experience or academic year,” Brouse says. “I look forward to future competitions.”

Cyber Fusion is co-hosted by the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), Sen. Mark R. Warner, the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative, and the Virginia Cyber Range. According to VMI, Cybersecurity is one of the nation’s and Commonwealth’s top priorities. Cyber Fusion is the organized integration of data and tools from disparate sources of support for secure and resilient system lifecycles.

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Events

Department of Cyber Security Engineering

Cyber Security

College of Engineering and Computing

Mason welcomes new Eminent Scholar in Cybersecurity

Martha Bushong — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 22:14:51 +0000

Mason welcomes new Eminent Scholar in Cybersecurity Martha Bushong Wed, 09/22/2021 - 18:14

Giuseppe Ateniese is the Eminent Scholar for Cybersecurity. Courtesy photo

It’s not surprising that George Mason University’s prominence in the field of cybersecurity attracted Giuseppe Ateniese to the College of Engineering and Computing. Mason has a long history of active teaching and research in cybersecurity. In the 2022 U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges List Mason ranked #28 nationally and #15 for public universities. Ateniese, who was recently hired as an Eminent Scholar in Cybersecurity, wants to take Mason to the next level.

“Mason was always on my radar,” says Ateniese. “So once this opportunity as an eminent scholar popped up, I was very interested. Mason is providing me with strong support to build a top-notch research group.”

Ateniese comes to Mason from Stevens Institute of Technology, where he was chair of the computer science department. He taught at Sapienza-University of Rome, served as assistant and associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, and was one of the JHU Information Security Institute founders. His experience in the corporate sector included a stint as a researcher at IBM’s Zurich research lab and as a scientist at the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California. He also briefly worked as a visiting professor at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington.

In addition to teaching cybersecurity classes, Ateniese expects to lead transformative growth in Mason’s cybersecurity research portfolio and encourage and foster new and existing collaborations with the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative and its partners as well as other academic, industrial, and governmental institutions in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

Ateniese says he would like to serve as a bridge between different units. “This is something I actually learned as department chair,” he says. “When I was able to connect faculty within my department to different units, sometimes I was able to make things happen.” He sees a large part of his role as finding collaborators. “I really want to go after bringing cybersecurity to the next level and figure out what is needed at Mason to move in that direction,” he says.

Ateniese’s research focuses on cloud security and machine learning applied to security and intelligence issues. He is also investigating new security applications for decentralized computing based on blockchain/bitcoin technology.

“Society is embracing artificial intelligence, and I’m concerned that we are doing this in a way that is probably too fast,” he says. “We have to consider also security and privacy implications of this technology. My goal is to build a safe and private artificial intelligence framework so that we can ensure that machine learning models are doing what they’re supposed to do.”

He is also investigating new security applications for decentralized computing based on blockchain/bitcoin technology. “Everyone is talking about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies,” he says. “But that’s probably nothing compared to what is possible with blockchains and smart contracts.”

Though his appointment is with the computer science and cybersecurity engineering departments, he sees amazing potential collaborations between different groups because cybersecurity spans many units. As time goes on, he aims to understand what’s available and coordinate significant cybersecurity initiatives.

Department of Computer Science chair David Rosenblum says, “Giuseppe is an internationally leading scholar who brings to Mason an outstanding record of research achievement in computer security, as well as extensive leadership experience in academic administration and entrepreneurship. We look forward to supporting him as he leads strategic research efforts in critically important areas such as blockchain technology and trustworthy AI.”

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Cyber Security

computer science

The Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute receives national recognition by the White House

Martha Bushong — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 18:03:16 +0000

The Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute receives national recognition by the White House Martha Bushong Fri, 08/27/2021 - 14:03

In This Story

Paulo Costa

The Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CyManII) was recognized by President Joe Biden and the White House Administration during his address given to the Cybersecurity Summit on August 25, 2021. U.S. public and private sector entities have been attacked in various high-profile cybersecurity incidents by increasingly sophisticated and malicious cyber attackers. President Biden addressed the cybersecurity threats and incidents that are currently affecting the nation and discussed how the government, education, and private sectors can work together to improve the nation’s cybersecurity.

Researchers from Mason’s College of Engineering and Computing are deeply involved with CyManII, and dedicated space at George Mason University’s Arlington Campus serves as the institute's east coast headquarters. The headquarters will house offices, meeting space, and training facilities for the National Capital Region.

“The Arlington facility will include 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.

Mason is participating 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 the annual RFP (Request for Proposals) competition. 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 for advanced manufacturing plants.

Funded by the Department of Energy, CyManII addresses the fundamental, hard challenges of cybersecurity within the manufacturing and cybersecurity sectors of our nation’s infrastructure. As mentioned by the White House, the U.S. manufacturing and energy critical infrastructure ecosystems are at high risk to cyber-attacks and thus, makes the U.S. manufacturing sector the number one target for nation-state cyber-attacks.

“CyManII recognizes that to transform the manufacturing industry, we must provide workforce development at scale to reach manufacturers where they exist today to upskill and reskill their workforce,” said CyManII Chief Executive Officer Howard Grimes. “To protect U.S. companies from cyber-attacks, a massive workforce development effort must be launched.”

Investing its technical expertise and efforts into developing a state-of-the-art secure manufacturing architecture called Energy Efficient (ε) Pervasive, Unobtrusive, Resilient, and Economical (ε-PURE), CyManII has begun the work necessary to research, implement and educate manufactures on the evolving threat vectors. This work aims to protect U.S companies from current and future cyber-attacks as well as increase overall equipment energy efficiency to provide manufacturers more productivity and more profit.

“CyManII will introduce new cyber-informed, secure-by-design architectures and we will align the implementation of these architectures, on both legacy and new systems, with a highly trained workforce capable of defending U.S. companies and manufacturers over the next decades,” says Grimes.

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Cyber Security

College of Engineering and Computing

Arlington campus

Mason Engineering BS in cyber security engineering earns ABET accreditation

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 14:45:18 +0000

Mason Engineering BS in cyber security engineering earns ABET accreditation Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/19/2021 - 09:45

Mason Engineering’s bachelor’s degree program in cyber security engineering has been accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, the global accreditor of college and university programs in applied and natural science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology.  

ABET accreditation assures that programs meet standards to produce graduates ready to enter critical technical fields that are leading the way in innovation and emerging technologies and anticipating the welfare and safety needs of the public.

“ABET accreditation is important to all engineering programs. The BS in cyber security engineering being the first ABET-accredited cyber security engineering program, and the first accredited with the new cyber security program criteria, is an important achievement for the new Volgenau Department of Cyber Security Engineering, but it is only the beginning,” says Peggy Brouse, professor and associate chair for the department. “The department is launching the new MS CYSE degree this spring semester. In addition, we are in a great position to extend research that we already have with the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. We are excited for the future.”

Students pursuing a BS in cybersecurity engineering learn from distinguished faculty in the classroom and gain hands-on experience through projects and a year-long senior design capstone where faculty, students, and even alumni come together to tackle real-world problems.

Alumnus turned senior design capstone advisor Matthew Wilkes, BS cyber security engineering ’18, says of the students he has mentored, “I want to ensure they’re encouraged to be successful in both their project and beyond. I won’t make it easy for them because if it was easy every student could do it.” Wilkes was among the first students to graduate from the program.

“Any student who graduates from Mason with a degree in cyber security engineering has very high expectations,” says Wilkes.

Students praise the program and the opportunities that Mason offers. “Mason’s cybersecurity program has helped me build a solid base of practice and theory to fuel extracurricular study,” says cyber security engineering student Zaine Wilson. “Professors Tom Winston, Jim Jones, Mohamed Gebril, and all the other professors in the department, you won't find a group of more caring, inspiring, and wise mentors anywhere else.”

ABET’s voluntary peer-review process is highly respected because it adds critical value to academic programs in the technical disciplines, where quality, precision, and safety are of the utmost importance.

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Cyber Security

Cybersecurity

Accreditation

Department of Cyber Security Engineering

George Mason University establishes first-of-its kind Cyber Security Engineering Department

John Hollis — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 10:00:00 +0000

George Mason University establishes first-of-its kind Cyber Security Engineering Department John Hollis Tue, 02/18/2020 - 05:00

George Mason University’s Volgenau School of Engineering has received approval to create the Department of Cyber Security Engineering, the first of its kind in the country.

George Mason University’s Volgenau School of Engineering has received the approval of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) to create the Department of Cyber Security Engineering, the first of its kind in the country.

“The creation of the Cyber Security Engineering Department is timely as it not only meets Mason’s overall goal to contribute to and expand tech talent in the Northern Virginia region, but is a direct response for a specific type of worker to meet the growing cybersecurity demands nationwide,” Provost and Executive Vice President S. David Wu said.

The new department, which will be officially established March 1, will be home to the 500 undergraduate students currently working toward bachelor of science degrees in cyber security engineering and led by Duminda Wijesekera, the interim director and a professor of computer science within the Volgenau School of Engineering.

“This is an exciting time in Mason’s history as we are training and preparing a 21st-century workforce that will impact the world’s population,” said Ken Ball, dean of the Volgenau School of Engineering. “There is a national shortfall of personnel who are trained to handle the increasing numbers of cybersecurity issues and intrusions.

The Cybersecurity Workforce Gap, published by the Center of Strategic and International Studies, reports that by 2022, “the global cybersecurity workforce shortage has been projected to reach upwards of 1.8 million unfilled positions.” Further, “workforce shortages exist for almost every position within cybersecurity, but the most acute needs are for highly skilled technical staff.” Many other reports put that number above 3 million. 

The curriculum will advance hardware and software security in such areas as health, finance, 5G cellular networks, supply chain, logistics, infrastructure, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and the internet of things. Both Cybercrime Magazine and the Center for Cyber Safety and Education noted that there is a global shortfall of 3 million skilled personnel in cybersecurity.

“Graduates from the department will have broad expertise across all areas of cybersecurity in engineered systems, and will be able to design systems proactively that are resilient to cyber attacks,” Ball said. “They will be in demand to fill jobs in all industries, not just in the U.S., but across the globe. The new department will allow us to enroll and support more students and will become one of the top recruitment destinations for employers seeking cybersecurity professionals.”

Mason’s proposed MS degree in Cyber Security Engineering is currently under review by SCHEV.