The UMBC Cyber Defense Lab presents

Categorizing Misconceptions of Cybersecurity Reasoning

Travis Scheponik, CSEE, UMBC

11:15am-12:30pm Friday, 9 September 2016, ITE 237

Are you interested in assistive robotics research?

Kavita Krishnaswamy is a Ph.D. candidate in the UMBC Computer Science program and has Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a neuromuscular disorder that affects the control of muscle movement.

Her goal is to develop robotics aids to increase independence for people with physical disabilities like herself. As part of her research she is conducting a survey on attitudes toward robotic aids and how they may improve the quality of life for those with physical disabilities, their family members, and their caregivers.

If you have a physical disability, are a caregiver for a person with a physical disability, or are a friend or family member of a person with a physical disability, you can help Kavita with her research by particiating in the survey. Participation is voluntary and anonymous. The participant must be 18 years or older. You can access the survey here.

This study has been reviewed and approved by the UMBC Institutional Review Board (IRB). A representative of that Board, from the Office for Research Protections and Compliance, is available to discuss the review process or Kavita's rights as a research participant. Contact information of the Office is (410) 455-2737 or compliance@umbc.edu.

UMBC’s Professor Marie desJardins was quoted recently in a TechRebublic article on the possible risks of adding more autonomy to weapons used by police and the military. The article focused on the novel use of a remotely controlled bomb-disposal robot by Dallas police to kill the suspect involved in the shooting of police officers. Although it was manually controlled by police officers, its use raised concerns about future devices that expected to have the capacity for independent decision making and actions.

Marie desJardins, AI professor at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County, agrees with Yampolskiy. “The real challenge will come when we start to put more autonomy into drones and assault robots. I don’t think that we should be building weapons that can, of their own accord, decide who to kill, and how to kill,” said desJardins.

“I think those decisions always need to be made by people—not just by individual people, but by processes in military organizations that have safeguards and accountability measures built into the process,” she said.

These issues were addressed by a recent series of workshops sponsored by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to learn more about the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence.

Ph.D. Dissertation Defense
Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Solving Mathematical Problems in Quantum Regime

Omar Shehab

2:00pm Thursday, 7 July 2016, ITE 325b

In this dissertation, I investigate a number of algorithmic approaches in quantum computational regime to solve mathematical problems. My problems of interest are the graph isomorphism and graph automorphism problems, and the complexity of memory recall of Hopfield network. I show that the hidden subgroup algorithm, quantum Fourier sampling, always fails, to construct the automorphism group for the class of the cycle graphs. I have discussed what we may infer for a few non-trivial classes of graphs from this result. This raises the question, which I have discussed in this dissertation, whether the hidden subgroup algorithm is the best approach for these kinds of problems. I have given a correctness proof of the Hen-Young quantum adiabatic algorithm for graph isomorphism for cycle graphs. To the best of my knowledge, this result is the first of its kind. I also report a proof-of-concept implementation of a quantum annealing algorithm for the graph isomorphism problem on a commercial quantum annealing device. This is also, to the best of my knowledge, the first of its kind. I have also discussed the worst-case for the algorithm. Finally, I have shown that quantum annealing helps us achieve exponential capacity for Hopfield networks.

Committee: Drs. Samuel J Lomonaco Jr. (Chair), Milton Halem, Yanhua Shih, William Gasarch and John Dorband

On June 14, the Democratic National Committee announced that its computer system had been hacked. Rick Forno, director of UMBC’s graduate program in cybersecurity and assistant director of the UMBC Center for Cybersecurity, discussed the “ongoing process” of stopping such attacks during a long-form discussion segment on the WOSU Radio’s “All Sides” show.

Forno made clear that there is no single, permanent solution to thwarting cyber threats, and a single mistake or vulnerability can have a major impact on digital security.. “All it takes is one person who does something wrong”—opening an email or plugging in a thumb-drive containing malware—“to place the entire organization at risk,” he says.

Forno also focused on the challenge of educating people about how to practice safe computing, and turning those practices into regular habits. The issues that arise with computing are as much human-based as they are technology-based, he suggests, plus, “You attack one problem and three more pop up the next day.”

To understand how a hack happened and to prevent hackers from taking advantage of vulnerabilities in the future, Forno suggests collecting and analyzing “artifacts” of the attack—things the hackers left behind—and heightening ongoing monitoring of key systems, approaches the DNC is likely now taking.

The UMBC Training Center will hold an online webinar 11:00-11:40am on Thursday, 30 June 2016 about its new, live online versions of its Certificate in Cyber Foundations and our Certificate in Cybersecurity. Each of the courses is comprised of a bundle of classes designed propel you through the training needed to reach specific career and skill-level goals.

This program provides candidates with the skills, knowledge, and credentials required to successfully begin a career in Information Technology and be poised to begin the training necessary to enter the Cybersecurity field. To earn the Certificate in Cyber Foundations, students will be guided through these three courses: CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+, CompTIA Security+. Each of these courses will prepare you for respective CompTIA Certificate Exams and includes exam vouchers.

The nationally recognized cybersecurity programs at UMBC Training Centers were designed in collaboration with senior executives from Fortune 500 companies and well-known government agencies and teach highly focused skills through practical experience as well as UMBC Training Centers’ signature Rapid Applied Learning approach.

Register for the webinar here.

Google will fund travel grants to the 2016 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference (GHC) which takes place in Houston, Oct 19-21, 2016. The GHC is the world’s largest gathering of women technologists and offers many valuable resources to students and academics alike, from a Student Opportunity Lab to tracks specifically designed to educate and inspire faculty. Its career fair, one of the largest in the U.S., earns a 97% satisfaction rate from our student survey respondents.

University students and industry professionals in the US and Canada who are excelling in computing and passionate about supporting women in tech can apply for a travel grant to attend the 2016 Grace Hopper conference. Sponsorship includes: conference registration, round trip flight to Houston, TX, arranged hotel accommodations from October 18-22, $75 USD reimbursement for miscellaneous travel costs and a fun social event with your fellow travel grant recipients on one of the evenings of the conference.

Apply by Sunday, July 10 using this online form. The Grace Hopper Travel Grant recipients will be announced by July 27th.