cybersecurity – Page 5 – Seidenberg School News

Hewlett Packard Enterprise cracks Fortify software at Seidenberg

The Seidenberg School was delighted to welcome Tom Ryan, from Hewlett Packard Enterprise, to come and provide training to our students at Pace University. In attendance were security professionals from the corporate sector as well as undergraduate and graduate students from the Seidenberg School. The training provided tremendous insight into Web vulnerabilities and how to prioritize threats.

Professor Hayes from the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems organized the training and was quoted as saying, “Hands-on training with professional security tools is paramount to the success of our students, especially given that many of those students have taken our online courses. It was heartening to see so many students attend, even before the semester has begun, in order to further their knowledge. Moreover, the participation of corporate IT professionals was an excellent opportunity for Pace students to network with industry experts and understand their challenges with Web security”.

Juan Guzman, a Seidenberg graduate IT major, who attended the training, said, “The HPE Fortify Application training provided information on how insecure applications represent in the world of information assurance however, with the education acquired from Pace University Instructors, Prof. Darren R. Hayes and the latest approach in testing methodologies by Tom Ryan has proven that learning the latest information security is a never ending process. Thank you for the always enlightening path of knowledge”.

The HPE Fortify training was part of the Seidenberg School’s Security and Forensics Week.

Vinnie Monaco makes Seidenberg history with first PhD in Computer Science

John “Vinnie” Monaco recently made an achievement that is a milestone in Seidenberg School history: he successfully defended his PhD dissertation and became the school’s first ever Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science! We are absolutely delighted with Vinnie’s success and can’t wait to see where his new qualification takes him.

Vinnie’s dissertation, “Time Intervals as a Behavioral Biometric,” isn’t just significant for the Seidenberg School, but it is also important within the field of behavioral biometrics. We asked Vinnie to provide some insight into the research he did:

“My work attempts to identify people based on the way they behave over time,” says Vinnie. “The model I proposed utilizes individual differences in temporal behavior across a range of scales, such as typing, sending emails, initiating financial transactions, or visiting the White House. The significance of this is that only event timestamps are required. This breaks down the privacy barrier that was thought to exist using tools that provide spatial anonymity, such as TOR, and calls for new identity-masking techniques. To be truly anonymous in the 21st century, a person has to not only hide their IP address or location; they have to also mask their behavior in some way.”

Pretty amazing stuff!

Vinnie’s defense was overseen by his dissertation committee (pictured, from left to right, Dr. Lixin Tao, Dr. Vinnie Monaco, Dr. Charles Tappert, and Dr. Meikang Qui).

On his impact at the Seidenberg School, Vinnie said: “I’m proud to have been the first PhD graduate from Seidenberg. I think that the school is starting to attract a greater number of quality researchers, both students and faculty, and I’m confident that the Seidenberg School will continue to be recognized as a leading institution in behavioral cybersecurity research.”

Congratulations to Dr. Monaco on his enormous achievement!

The Seidenberg School welcomes James Gabberty as Associate Dean

As of November 1, Dr. James Gabberty has assumed the position of Associate Dean at the Seidenberg School. Dr. Gabberty has a wealth of experience that made him the ideal candidate for the position.

He will be working to drive more sponsored research and internship opportunities to Seidenberg. He will also be focusing on the creation of a cybersecurity certification program with Pace Adult and Continuing Education.

Exciting things are happening at the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Education Systems, and we can’t wait to announce them as they take place!

Seidenberg Students Involved in Dark Research

There is a lot of buzz about the Dark Web these days, especially after the highly-publicized take-down of the Silk Road. Concerns about the Dark Web are not just limited to drug markets, illegal arms, sinister hitmen and notorious hackers for sale but impacts our own personal well-being. Companies have been investing heavily in cyber intelligence tools and hiring new employees to scour the Internet for threats as well as the Dark Web.

Students at the Seidenberg School have been delving into the dark reaches of the Dark Web and assisting private and public sector entities to better understand organizational threats. This is especially important because stolen personal information, like payment card numbers, health records and other stolen data is actively marketed in bulk quantities. Cataloging and searching these marketplaces has been a challenge due to the lack of indexing Tor sites and the fact that these sites come and go on a daily basis. This is where the Seidenberg students’ research becomes vital to assisting law enforcement and the intelligence community.

Tor site for selling stolen payment cards

One member of the student researcher team said: “Researching the dark web has highlighted the importance of operational security to protect myself and my data.

“This experience has shown the important relationship between of academic and law enforcement, as criminals are exploiting the same vectors university students are researching. Students can personally benefit from this relationship by having a real world application for our research, and know that our findings can stop the activities we investigate.

“The dark web has shown me how vast the internet is and the potential for good and bad it has. It is a very exciting time to be a security researcher.”

The students undertaking the project are doing so in the Internet Technology class IT-662 Web & Internet Security.

The Dark Web is a vast chasm and DARPA’s Memex program is indicative of how the government has become more dependent than ever on university researchers to find the terrorists, organized criminal gangs and enterprising thieves on the Dark Web.

What is startling from our initial findings is that only a very small percentage of Tor sites, operating criminal marketplaces, are ever taken down with the perpetrators being brought to justice. It’s a daunting task but Pace University is doing its part to identify the nefarious actors on the Dark Web.

Experts to talk Threat Intelligence at cybersecurity symposium

On Friday, October 30, 2015, we welcome a panel of renowned experts who will speak about threat intelligence to an audience of more than 100 students who are passionate about cyber security and digital forensics.

During the sold-out event, organized by Dr. Darren Hayes, the Director of the Seidenberg Cybersecurity Institute, we will hear from incredible speakers who will share their experiences across the field:

Joel Krauss, the Director of Strategic Information & Crisis Management for the International Rescue Committee, will be giving a talk called Human Intelligence: A Holistic Approach. This talk will focus on leveraging organic intelligence-gathering assets within one’s own organization in order to answer organizational risk information (ORI) priorities.

Ian Amit, Vice President at ZeroFox, will give a presentation titled Actionable Threat Intelligence. Ian’s talk will discuss how to create a customized, organization-specific threat intelligence feed, which in turn will be used to actively increase the security posture of the organization in a measurable way.

Joshua Philipp, who is a National Security Reporter, China News, at Epoch Times, will be an explanation of the vast system behind Chinese economic espionage, and how it is carried out by military, civilian, government, business, and academic sectors in China. The talk is called Cyber and Beyond: The Inner Workings of Chinese Economic Espionage – quite the exciting title!

The final talk will be by Lenny Zeltser, Product Management Director, NCR Corp, with an Introduction to Malware Analysis. In this session, Lenny Zeltser demonstrates key aspects of this process, walking attendees through behavioral analysis of a real-world Windows malware specimen by using several free tools. He will demonstrate practical techniques in action and how malware analysis will help to triage the incident to assess key capabilities of the malicious software.

The event will take place from 12:15-5:30 at Lecture Hall North and promises to be an incredible afternoon of presentations, discussion, and learning.

Free Symposium on Cybercrime and Cybersecurity at Pace, September 17th

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Pace University are teaming up again to bring you a symposium on Cybercrime in the World Today 2015: Innovations in the Field of Cybersecurity. The event will take place in the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts on Thursday, September 17th from 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM.

The morning will include a networking breakfast as well as a panel discussion featuring Seidenberg’s Interim Dean Dr. Jonathan Hill among the participants. The panel will also include Colonel Timothy Lunderman, National Guard Bureau Advisor to the Commander of United States Cyber Command USCYBERCOM and National Guard Bureau Cyber Division Lead; Ms. Emily Mossburg, Principal, Cyber Risk Services – Resilient practice leader, Deloitte Advisory; and Dr. Marie-Michelle Strah, Director, Enterprise Architecture at NBCUniversal, Inc.

The event is free, but space is limited, so RSVP here today!