The Team for Research in Ubiquitous Secure Technology (TRUST) will sponsor 20 undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds and cultures, to participate in the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience located at TRUST partner campuses: UC Berkeley, Cornell University, Stanford University, Vanderbilt University. These students will work with graduate student and faculty mentors throughout the summer performing research and supporting activities in the area of information technology and TRUST related topics. The program will run from June 3 to July 27, 2012 and provide room and board, a travel allowance and a $4,000 stipend. Apply by February 17. See the flyer for more information and the Trust REU site for details and to apply.

Cyber Security Situation Awareness and Impact Assessment:
Issues, Models and Applications

Dr. Gabriel Jakobson
Altusys Corporation, Princeton NJ

10:30-11:30am 8 November 2011, ITE 325

Cyber attacks committed against IT networks and services have profound impact both on ongoing mission and future missions, whose operations are based on these networks and services. The attacks, by exploiting the vulnerabilities of the software assets can push their impact through Cyber Terrain – a dependency network of structural, spatial, functional and other domain-specific dependencies that exist among software assets and services, and reach the missions. In this presentation we will introduce a novel approach of assessing impact of cyber attacks on missions (business process) and describe the basic models and algorithms of the approach.

Dr. Gabriel Jakobson is the VP and Chief Scientist at Altusys Corp., a consulting firm specializing in the development of intelligent situation management technologies for defence and cyber security applications. During his more than 20 years tenure at Verizon he had increasing responsibilities of leading advanced database, expert systems, artificial intelligence, and telecommunication network management programs. He has authored (and co-authored) more than 100 technical papers and is principal author of 5 US patents in situation management and event correlation. He received PhD degree in Computer Science from the Institute of Cybernetics, Estonia. Dr. Jakobson holds the honorary degree of Doctor Honorius Causa from the Tallinn Technical University, Estonia, and is Distinguished IEEE Lecturer. Dr. Jakobson is the member of the Board of Governors of IEEE Communications Society, Director, IEEE ComSoc North America Region, co-chair of the Tactical Communications and Operations Technical Committee of IEEE ComSoc, chair of the IEEE ComSoc Sub-Committee on Situation Management.

Host: Anupam Joshi

Cyber Security Situation Awareness and Impact Assessment:
Issues, Models and Applications

Dr. Gabriel Jakobson
Altusys Corporation, Princeton NJ

10:30-11:30am 8 November 2011, ITE 325

Cyber attacks committed against IT networks and services have profound impact both on ongoing mission and future missions, whose operations are based on these networks and services. The attacks, by exploiting the vulnerabilities of the software assets can push their impact through Cyber Terrain – a dependency network of structural, spatial, functional and other domain-specific dependencies that exist among software assets and services, and reach the missions. In this presentation we will introduce a novel approach of assessing impact of cyber attacks on missions (business process) and describe the basic models and algorithms of the approach.

Dr. Gabriel Jakobson is the VP and Chief Scientist at Altusys Corp., a consulting firm specializing in the development of intelligent situation management technologies for defence and cyber security applications. During his more than 20 years tenure at Verizon he had increasing responsibilities of leading advanced database, expert systems, artificial intelligence, and telecommunication network management programs. He has authored (and co-authored) more than 100 technical papers and is principal author of 5 US patents in situation management and event correlation. He received PhD degree in Computer Science from the Institute of Cybernetics, Estonia. Dr. Jakobson holds the honorary degree of Doctor Honorius Causa from the Tallinn Technical University, Estonia, and is Distinguished IEEE Lecturer. Dr. Jakobson is the member of the Board of Governors of IEEE Communications Society, Director, IEEE ComSoc North America Region, co-chair of the Tactical Communications and Operations Technical Committee of IEEE ComSoc, chair of the IEEE ComSoc Sub-Committee on Situation Management.

Host: Anupam Joshi

Some of this text was adapted from a press release and a post from the Scantegrity blog

UMBC Professor Alan Sherman, UMBC alumnus Rick Carback (Ph.D. 2010) and many former and current UMBC students helped to develop Scantegrity, an an open source election verification technology for optical scan voting systems. In 2009, their Scantegrity II voting system was used in the election of the mayor and city council members of Takoma Park, Maryland. This was an historic first time any end-to-end voter verifiable voting system with ballot privacy has been used in a binding governmental election.

This week, absentee voters in Takoma Park, Maryland will have the option to cast their votes for mayor and city council using a new Internet voting system called Remotegrity which uses the same approach of generating privacy preserving confirmation numbers that allow each voter to verify her vote is counted and anyone to verify that all the votes were counted correctly. Dr. Carback has played a significant role in helping Takoma Park adopt and use Scantegrity and Remotegrity in the municipal elections.

Internet voting has been used to elect government officials before (for example, in Switzerland, Estonia, and Norway), but what is new here is that voters mail in paper ballots and use the Internet to independently verify that their votes have been received by the city and recorded correctly. Anyone can check online that the recorded votes were tallied correctly.

Dr. Filip Zagorski, computer scientist at The George Washington University, explains ÒThrough the hybrid use of paper ballots and Internet verification, Remotegrity combines the best of both worlds to provide a very high degree of security even against malware and insider attack.Ó Portions of the underlying research in cryptography and secure server design were supported by the National Science Foundation and the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

Voters who have requested to vote by mail receive a ballot which they mark and mail in, but they can also verify their vote on-line in the Remotegrity system, without revealing how they voted. In future elections, the same online procedure may cast votes and physical mailing of paper ballots may be optional or omitted.

The city will also use the Scantegrity voting system for voters who cast their ballot in person, as it did in 2009. The integrated Scantegrity and Remotegrity systems offer full end-to-end voter-verifiability, in which voters casting ballots from home or in person can verify that their votes were correctly cast, collected, and counted.

Additionally, this year, the city will provide an audio interface for marking ballots. The interface, named Audiotegrity, developed by researchers at The George Washington University, will enable voters with difficulty marking paper ballots to mark ballots independently using an electronic interface. Mr. Noel Runyan, a usability and accessibility expert, provided pro bono design advice to the Audiotegrity team.

With a grant from the federal Election Assistance Commission, and support from the non-profit Voting Systems Institute, researchers from UMBC will survey voters and election officials as well as conduct focus groups around their experiences using these new voting systems.

For more information, see the recent paper by UMBC Ph.D. alumnus Rick Carback et al., Scantegrity II Municipal Election at Takoma Park: The First E2E Binding Governmental Election with Ballot Privacy, or contact Professor Alan Sherman.

Some of this text was adapted from a press release and a post from the Scantegrity blog

UMBC Professor Alan Sherman, UMBC alumnus Rick Carback (Ph.D. 2010) and many former and current UMBC students helped to develop Scantegrity, an an open source election verification technology for optical scan voting systems. In 2009, their Scantegrity II voting system was used in the election of the mayor and city council members of Takoma Park, Maryland. This was an historic first time any end-to-end voter verifiable voting system with ballot privacy has been used in a binding governmental election.

This week, absentee voters in Takoma Park, Maryland will have the option to cast their votes for mayor and city council using a new Internet voting system called Remotegrity which uses the same approach of generating privacy preserving confirmation numbers that allow each voter to verify her vote is counted and anyone to verify that all the votes were counted correctly. Dr. Carback has played a significant role in helping Takoma Park adopt and use Scantegrity and Remotegrity in the municipal elections.

Internet voting has been used to elect government officials before (for example, in Switzerland, Estonia, and Norway), but what is new here is that voters mail in paper ballots and use the Internet to independently verify that their votes have been received by the city and recorded correctly. Anyone can check online that the recorded votes were tallied correctly.

Dr. Filip Zagorski, computer scientist at The George Washington University, explains ÒThrough the hybrid use of paper ballots and Internet verification, Remotegrity combines the best of both worlds to provide a very high degree of security even against malware and insider attack.Ó Portions of the underlying research in cryptography and secure server design were supported by the National Science Foundation and the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

Voters who have requested to vote by mail receive a ballot which they mark and mail in, but they can also verify their vote on-line in the Remotegrity system, without revealing how they voted. In future elections, the same online procedure may cast votes and physical mailing of paper ballots may be optional or omitted.

The city will also use the Scantegrity voting system for voters who cast their ballot in person, as it did in 2009. The integrated Scantegrity and Remotegrity systems offer full end-to-end voter-verifiability, in which voters casting ballots from home or in person can verify that their votes were correctly cast, collected, and counted.

Additionally, this year, the city will provide an audio interface for marking ballots. The interface, named Audiotegrity, developed by researchers at The George Washington University, will enable voters with difficulty marking paper ballots to mark ballots independently using an electronic interface. Mr. Noel Runyan, a usability and accessibility expert, provided pro bono design advice to the Audiotegrity team.

With a grant from the federal Election Assistance Commission, and support from the non-profit Voting Systems Institute, researchers from UMBC will survey voters and election officials as well as conduct focus groups around their experiences using these new voting systems.

For more information, see the recent paper by UMBC Ph.D. alumnus Rick Carback et al., Scantegrity II Municipal Election at Takoma Park: The First E2E Binding Governmental Election with Ballot Privacy, or contact Professor Alan Sherman.

This October is the the eighth annual National Cyber Security Awareness Month sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security in cooperation with the National Cyber Security Alliance and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

According to the DHS, cyber threats present some of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face, not just in the United States, but throughout the world. Everyone who uses the Internet has a role to play in helping to secure it and thus enhance the safety for themselves and their families online.

See the DHS National Cyber Security Awareness Month site for more information, including suggestions for what you can do.

The Maryland Cyber Challenge & Conference (MDC3) will be held on Friday and Saturday, October 21-22 at the Baltimore Convention Center. See the Web site for the schedule and to register.

The MDC3 is open to anyone who’s interested in advancing, studying or working in the field of cybersecurity, including IT and cybersecurity professionals, corporate and government leaders, college and high school students, teachers, administrators and parents and cyber enthusiasts.

The MDC3 cyber challenge gives teams of high school students, college and university students, and professionals the opportunity to learn more about cybersecurity and develop practical skills for defending computers while competing for scholarships in a fun environment. The MDC3 conference features government and industry leaders, breakout sessions and cyber innovation exhibits for an audience of students, parents and professionals from academia, industry and government.

MDC3 was founded by Science Applications International Corporation and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in partnership with the Department of Business & Economic Development, the Tech Council of Maryland and the National Cyber Security Alliance with the goal of encouraging Maryland students and young professionals to pursue education and careers in cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity Guest Lecture

An Evening With General Michael Hayden, USAF (Ret.)

6:00-8:00pm Thursday, 27 Oct. 2011
Room 102, Information Technology and Engineering

UMBC is proud to announce this opportunity for students and faculty to meet with General Hayden to hear his perspectives and discuss current issues regarding cybersecurity. The evening is sponsored by Next Century Corporation.

Former NSA and CIA director General Michael Hayden will discuss the evolution of technology from World War II to the present and outline the challenges this evolution presents to national security organizations. He will address the timely issues of cybersecurity and cyberwarfare, stress the role of education in preparing the intelligence community workforce to deal with cyber concerns, and share anecdotal stories of his time as Director of both the CIA and NSA in meeting these challenges facing the nation. General Hayden is happy to answer questions and make this an engaging, informative, and interactive evening.

Refreshments will be furnished by Next Century Corporation.

RSVP REQUIRED: Space is limited, with preference given to graduate CYBR, CSEE, and IS students and faculty. Please RSVP to Allison Jones (Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address. ) by October 25th if you plan to attend.

General Michael Hayden, USAF (Ret.), served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency and was the nation’s first Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence. He retired from the CIA in February 2009, and is now a Principal in the Chertoff Group, a security consultancy co-founded by former Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff. General Hayden also serves as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at George Mason University School of Public Policy and in an advisory capacity to several organizations focused on national security.

General Hayden retired from a distinguished thirty-nine year career in the United States Air Force on July 1, 2008. In addition to his senior intelligence community assignments, he served as Commander of the Air Intelligence Agency, Director of the Joint Command and Control Warfare Center, and Chief of the Central Security Service.

General Hayden graduated from Duquesne University with a Bachelor’s degree in history in 1967 and a Master’s degree in modern American history in 1969.

NSA will be at the Commons for this year's CryptoChallenge competition. Stop by and test your skills against their cryptographic brain teasers and maybe score some great giveaways. Join them for some friendly competition from 11:00am to 5:00pm on Friday 30 September at the Commons Outside Terrace or Main Street if it rains.

Bring your resume — NSA recruiters will be on hand to discuss career opportunities for the best codemakers and codebreakers in the business. You can hone your cryptographic skills before the event by downloading the free NSA CryptoChallenge from the Apple App Store for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

NSA CryptoChallenge is a game that tests your pattern recognition skills through a series of cryptographs. Your mission is to decipher encrypted quotes, factoids, historical events and more. It’s you against the clock to see how fast you can crack the code. Or, you can challenge a friend with the multiplayer interface. In that instance, it's a one-on-one race to see who can correctly solve the puzzle first.

NSA executes some of the nation’s most important and sensitive intelligence operations. To help us accomplish our mission, we’re looking for the best and the brightest problem solvers to join our team. If you can solve these puzzles, you just might have what it takes to help NSA keep America safe.

Cybersecurity Lecture

Modern Threat Environment and the Impact of Technology Shifts

Neal Ziring
Information Assurance Technical Director
National Security Agency

6-7pm Tuesday 20 September 2011 in ITE 102 (LH 8)

Neal Ziring will give a special guest lecture in CYBR620 (Introduction to Cybersecurity) on the modern threat environment and the impact of shifts in technology, such as the move from IPv4 to IPv6 and the security of systems and networks topics.

Mr. Neal Ziring is currently a technical director in the Information Assurance Directorate (IAD), at NSA. The IAD provides cryptographic, network, and operational security products and services to protect and defend national security systems. Prior to his role at the IAD level, Neal with a technical director for the Vulnerability Analysis and Operations Group, which provides technology evaluations, defensive operations, and secure configuration guidance for the DoD and the IC. During that time, Neal also served as security architect for two major NSA mission systems programs, collaborated with NIST on the Security Content Automation Protocol (S-CAP) specifications, and lead analysis efforts for Cloud Computing technology and IPv6. Neal has degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Washington University. Before coming to NSA in 1989, he worked at AT&T Bell Labs.