Both the Washington Post and New York Times report that the Pentagon has approved a five-fold expansion of the US DoD Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) over the next several years to enhance its ability to defend critical computer systems and conduct offensive computer operations against foreign adversaries.

The expansion is in response to concerns about threats of potential attacks by "malicious actors" on US computer infrastructure, networks, computer systems. The Post article says that

"The gravity of that threat … has been highlighted by a string of sabotage attacks, including one in which a virus was used to wipe data a from more than 30,000 computers at a Saudi Arabian state oil company last summer."

The Cyber Command will have three different forces: national mission forces to protect computer systems that support the nation’s critical infrastructures, such as the electrical power grid, combat mission forces to plan and execute attacks on adversaries and cyber protection forces to secure DoD networks and computer systems.

The current Cyber command comprises about 900 personnel and is expected to grow to include 4,900 troops and civilians.

Both the Washington Post and New York Times report that the Pentagon has approved a five-fold expansion of the US DoD Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) over the next several years to enhance its ability to defend critical computer systems and conduct offensive computer operations against foreign adversaries.

The expansion is in response to concerns about threats of potential attacks by "malicious actors" on US computer infrastructure, networks, computer systems. The Post article says that

"The gravity of that threat … has been highlighted by a string of sabotage attacks, including one in which a virus was used to wipe data a from more than 30,000 computers at a Saudi Arabian state oil company last summer."

The Cyber Command will have three different forces: national mission forces to protect computer systems that support the nation’s critical infrastructures, such as the electrical power grid, combat mission forces to plan and execute attacks on adversaries and cyber protection forces to secure DoD networks and computer systems.

The current Cyber command comprises about 900 personnel and is expected to grow to include 4,900 troops and civilians.

Both the Washington Post and New York Times report that the Pentagon has approved a five-fold expansion of the US DoD Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) over the next several years to enhance its ability to defend critical computer systems and conduct offensive computer operations against foreign adversaries.

The expansion is in response to concerns about threats of potential attacks by "malicious actors" on US computer infrastructure, networks, computer systems. The Post article says that

"The gravity of that threat … has been highlighted by a string of sabotage attacks, including one in which a virus was used to wipe data a from more than 30,000 computers at a Saudi Arabian state oil company last summer."

The Cyber Command will have three different forces: national mission forces to protect computer systems that support the nation’s critical infrastructures, such as the electrical power grid, combat mission forces to plan and execute attacks on adversaries and cyber protection forces to secure DoD networks and computer systems.

The current Cyber command comprises about 900 personnel and is expected to grow to include 4,900 troops and civilians.

Maryland and Baltimore are top places for cybersecurity jobs according to the Cyber Jobs Report released earlier in January. The report includes a snapshot of the industry, its job openings and educational opportunities, and a proposed standardized cyber security nomenclature for this emerging industry.

The study searched approximately 340,000 cybersecurity jobs offered by more than 18,000 companies across the country and found that Maryland had 19,413 job openings in the industry. With more than 13,000 of these job openings located in Baltimore City, the city placed third among major cyber hot beds, behind only Palo Alto and San Francisco in the number of available cybersecurity positions.

Letting the data speak — from blind to semi-blind source separation

Dr. Ronald Phlypo
Research Associate, MLSP lab, UMBC

1:00pm Friday, 1 February 2013, ITE 227, UMBC

Blind source separation has known a vivid and rapid expansion during the nineties. Alleviating the need for prior physical knowledge—such as the geometry of the antenna array—allowed for data-driven exploration of the data, based on the sole, but natural assumption of independence. In this talk, I will focus on blind source separation, with specific applications in biomedical signal processing. Since independence allows to have an identifiable model under very few assumptions on the data, it is indeed widely praised as a candidate objective for source separation. However, it will be shown that independence alone is not always sufficient to permit for a physically or physiologically interpretable signal. During this talk, I will show some proposed solutions that add minimal extra assumptions on the data, allowing to identify physiological "sources" from electroencephalography, electrocardiography, and functional magnetic resonance imaging. I will also shortly demonstrate why the linear mixture model is indeed an appropriate model for these biophysical signals.

Ronald Phlypo obtained a degree in industrial engineering at the KHBO, Ostend, Belgium ('03) and a master in artificial intelligence at the KULeuven, Leuven, Belgium ('04) where he completed his master's thesis under the supervision of prof. S. Van Huffel. While pursuing his PhD degree at the University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium, he visited the I3S lab and worked with P. Comon, M. Antonini and V. Zarzoso. From Jan'10 to Feb.'12 he was a research associate at GIPSA lab, Grenoble, France and since April'12 a research associate at the UMBC -MLSP lab, Baltimore, USA. His research interests are in blind source separation, statistical signal processing, and machine learning.

One the hottest topics in computing today is data science — how we can exploit the massive amounts of data now available to discover knowledge and solve problems. Data science touches on many computing areas (e.g., databases, machine learning, high performance computing, visualization, cloud computing, text analysis and graph analytics) and has many applications.

If you are interested in this, you might consider joining the new Mid-Maryland Data Science Meetup.

"The Mid-Maryland Data Science group is intended to be a gathering of professionals, students, and enthusiasts in the area to discuss diverse topics related to data science. We aim to have frank discussions on all topics related to the field of data analytics. No subject is too big or too small, as we believe analytics can operate on any scale. We plan to mix education with practical examples, helping users make the most of their time."

An initial meeting will be held next Tuesday (January 29) from 6:00-8:00pm at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. You can find out more about the event and reserve a spot on the meetup site. You can expect the meetings to be held about once a month in the early evening at various sites, feature one or more speakers, and provide some refreshments (e.g., pizza, soda).

These meetup events are a great way to learn about emerging technologies as well as connect with people and organizations working with them. Attending such meetings can also lead to opportunities for internships and full time jobs.

The United States Intelligence Community (IC) invites you to attend the fourth annual IC Virtual Career Fair – a free online event – on Tuesday, 26 February 2013, from 2:00pm to 8:00pm (Eastern).

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about IC careers and get tips on how to apply for positions. From the comfort of your computer or mobile device, you will be able to:

• Visit IC agencies’ virtual booths
• Chat with recruiters and subject matter experts in real-time
• Attend live presentations
• Explore currently available jobs
• Link to IC agency Web sites to apply to positions online
• Network with other job seekers
• Learn about internships and other student opportunities

Space is limited. To guarantee entrance, pre-registration is highly encouraged. For more information and to register, go to http://icvirtualfair.com/

U.S. citizenship is required. The United States Intelligence Community is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's DEVELOP program is looking for several interns to assist with Earth Science research projects during Summer 2013 for a 10 week paid internship, working 30-35 hours a week. The summer 2013 term will start on Monday, June 3, 2013 and end on Friday, August 9, 2013.

Students will work with NASA scientists and partner organizations to learn about the use of NASA remote sensing imagery for use in water resources, disaster management, and ecological forecasting applications to address environmental community concerns.

Requirements: U.S. Citizens. 3.0 GPA minimum. High School, Undergraduate, and Graduate Students with majors/skills in GIS, Remote Sensing, Cartography, Geography, Earth Science, Environmental Science, Computer Science, Web Programming, Web Development/Design, Database Management, Spatial Statistics, Hydrology, Ecology, Atmospheric Science, and/or Environmental Engineering are encouraged to apply. Knowledge of forest dynamics, fire ecology, satellite image processing, ENVI/IDL, Python, web development, GIS (ArcGIS, qGIS, SAGA) and database management (PostGIS/PostGresql, Geoserver, OpenLayers) are highly desirable.

The deadline to apply is Monday, February 4, 2013 (postmarked). Students need to visit the DEVELOP website, click on "Apply", download application, and choose Summer 2013 term at GSFC in Greenbelt, Maryland.

For more information contact Melissa Oguamanam: melissa (dot) i (dot) oguamanam (at) nasa (dot) gov

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's DEVELOP program is looking for several interns to assist with Earth Science research projects during Summer 2013 for a 10 week paid internship, working 30-35 hours a week. The summer 2013 term will start on Monday, June 3, 2013 and end on Friday, August 9, 2013.

Students will work with NASA scientists and partner organizations to learn about the use of NASA remote sensing imagery for use in water resources, disaster management, and ecological forecasting applications to address environmental community concerns.

Requirements: U.S. Citizens. 3.0 GPA minimum. High School, Undergraduate, and Graduate Students with majors/skills in GIS, Remote Sensing, Cartography, Geography, Earth Science, Environmental Science, Computer Science, Web Programming, Web Development/Design, Database Management, Spatial Statistics, Hydrology, Ecology, Atmospheric Science, and/or Environmental Engineering are encouraged to apply. Knowledge of forest dynamics, fire ecology, satellite image processing, ENVI/IDL, Python, web development, GIS (ArcGIS, qGIS, SAGA) and database management (PostGIS/PostGresql, Geoserver, OpenLayers) are highly desirable.

The deadline to apply is Monday, February 4, 2013 (postmarked). Students need to visit the DEVELOP website, click on "Apply", download application, and choose Summer 2013 term at GSFC in Greenbelt, Maryland.

For more information contact Melissa Oguamanam: melissa (dot) i (dot) oguamanam (at) nasa (dot) gov

Applications are now being accepted for the Information Assurance Scholarship Program (IASP) and the Federal Cyber Service: Scholarship for Service (SFS). US citizens capable of receiving security clearances are eligible.  The deadline for both programs in February 8, 2013.

These scholarships require the recipient to work for the government following graduation. The awards include full tuition, stipend ($30k/year for PhD students, $25k/year for MS/MPS students, and $20k/year for BS students), and more.

(1) Information Assurance Scholarship Program (IASP)

The Information Assurance Scholarship Program is a yearly awarded Department of Defense sponsored scholarship/fellowship program to promote the education, recruitment, and retention of rising junior and senior undergraduate, MS, MPS, or PhD student status in CMSC, CYBR, or related field at UMBC (including IS, Math, EE, CE, physics, public policy).

(2) Federal Cyber Service: Scholarship for Service (SFS)

The Scholarship for Service is a yearly awarded National Science Foundation sponsored scholarship program to promote the education, recruitment, and retention of rising junior and senior undergraduates and graduate students in cybersecurity-related studies. See https://www.sfs.opm.gov/ for more SFS details. (We have 2 CYBR MPS, 1 BS in CS, and 1 PhD in CS, students presently in this program.)

Completed applications for both programs are due by 12:00 (noon) on February 8, 2013.  The same application form is used for each program.  This deadline is strict.

More information, points of contact, and application instructions for both programs can be found at http://www.cisa.umbc.edu/scholarships.php.

The UMBC Center for Information and Assurance (CISA) was created in 2001 as the central point of contact at UMBC for Information Assurance (IA) including  research, teaching, and best practices.  It is because of CISA that UMBC has been recognized as a national center of academic excellence in IA education and research (CAE/CAEr).