Department of Information Systems Colloquium

Beyond Reactive Management of Network Intrusions

Professor Sushil Jajodia
Center for Secure Information Systems
George Mason University

12:00pm Wednesday, 12 October 2011, ITE456, UMBC

This talk will discuss issues and methods for survivability of systems under malicious attacks. To protect from such attacks, it is necessary to take steps to prevent attacks from succeeding. At the same time, it is important to recognize that not all attacks can be averted at the outset; attacks that are successful to some degree must be recognized as unavoidable and comprehensive support for identifying and responding to attacks is required.

In my talk, I will describe the recent research on attack graphs that represent known attack sequences attackers can use to penetrate computer networks. I will show how attack graphs can be used to compute actual sets of hardening measures that guarantee the safety of given critical resources. Attack graphs can also be used to correlate received alerts, hypothesize missing alerts, and predict future alerts, all at the same time. Thus, they offer a promising solution for administrators to monitor and predict the progress of an intrusion, and take appropriate countermeasures in a timely manner.

I will conclude my talk with a demo of the working system.

Sushil Jajodia is University Professor, BDM International Professor, and the director of Center for Secure Information Systems in the Volgenau School of Engineering at the George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. He served as the chair of the Department of Information and Software Engineering during 1998-2002. He joined Mason after serving as the director of the Database and Expert Systems Program within the Division of Information, Robotics, and Intelligent Systems at the National Science Foundation. Before that he was the head of the Database and Distributed Systems Section in the Computer Science and Systems Branch at the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington and Associate Professor of Computer Science and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Milan, Italy; Sapienza University of Rome, Italy; Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge University, England; and King's College, London, England.

The UMBC ACM Student Chapter is co-hosting Interdisciplinary Engineering Panel Night at 7:00pm on Thursday 6 October 201 in the Commons Skylight Lounge. This free event is open to both undergraduate and graduate students in all engineering disciplines. Students have a chance to hear the perspective of professionals from industry, socializing and expanding their network. The event is co-sponsored with mechanical engineering (ASME), chemical engineering (AIChE), Device and the National Society of Black Engineers. Hors d’oeuvres will be served. Business casual dress suggested.

“I think it’s more than a jargon,” says Karuna Joshi of Cloud Computing, a topic she will discuss this Friday during a Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department Colloquium, “It’s an actual paradigm shift.” Ms. Joshi, a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at UMBC, has been pursing research on Cloud Computing for the past three years and was recently awarded a prestigious IBM Ph.D. Fellowship (2011-2012) to help fund her efforts. Ms.Joshi explains that with the widespread implementation of Cloud Computing, Computing has the potential to become a utility—such as power or water—that would be widely available over a wireless network.

Though the cloud has the potential to save money and increase efficiency within organizations that choose to implement the new technology, there are still serious concerns about security, she says. What’s revolutionary about the cloud, for example, is that is removes the need to contain software and information on a particular device. Instead, information and services are wirelessly available to a network of users. The risk is that without proper security enforcement, sensitive information could potentially be accessed by hackers.

Nevertheless, Cloud Computing is steadily gaining credence among popular companies, says Joshi. Amazon, Microsoft and Google, for example, have all developed clouds. “I believe it will be strongly adopted by the industry,” says Ms. Joshi, “It’s the fastest growing field in the computing area.”  Even federal agencies have been mandated to move to a cloud system under the Federal Cloud Computing Initiative, as a way to reduce cost by consolidating necessary information and services into a central, easy to manage location.

Ms. Joshi explains that the novelty of the field makes her work exciting. The research allows her to explore issues that have not been addressed, such as the future of negotiation for acquiring services in the cloud. Through her research, Ms. Joshi has developed an ontology for the life cycle of the cloud that is composed of five phases: requirements, discovery, negotiation, composition and consumption. In addition, she is collaborating with the National Institute of Standards and Technology ( NIST) on a web-based prototype system.

Ms. Joshi envisions a future where powerful portable computing devices, like iPads, tablets and smartphones, will replace traditional computers. This future is only possible, explains Joshi,  if the widespread implementation of Cloud Computing and the transformation of computing into a service becomes a reality.

Ms. Karuna Joshi will speak about her research this Friday, October 7^th at 1 p.m. in ITE 227.

Read anything interesting lately? Why not nominate it for next year’s new student book experience.

UMBC’s summer reading connects new freshmen and transfer students with other students, faculty, and staff at the start of the academic year, providing an intellectually stimulating interaction that welcomes new students into the UMBC community.

You can now use a convenient Facebook app to nominate books. It uses Google’s book search service to find books based on key words from its title or author’s name and automatically enter their information. The app can then help you post your book nomination to your Facebook page and/or recommend the app to some of your Facebook friends.

A group of UMBC faculty members was recently awarded a 4-year, National Science Foundation (NSF) grant totaling $1.8 million to pursue work with “Global Collaboration Engine” (GLOBE), a “globally relevant search engine.” “Our objective is to change the way land change scientists do business,” explains Dr. Erle Ellis, associate professor of Geography and Environmental Systems, and the Principal Investigator for the grant.

Ellis explains that GLOBE will allow land change researchers to quickly and easily harvest expertise from a range sources. “People working locally will use that connection to think globally about their work in a more quantitative way.”

Along with Dr. Ellis and Dr. Wayne Lutters, associate professor of Information Systems, the research team includes Computer Science and Electrical Engineering professors Dr. Tim Oates, Dr. Tim Finin and Dr. Penny Rheingnas, all Co-Principal Investigators for the grant who are responsible for the computing elements of the project.

“It’s sort of like Facebook,” says Dr. Oates of GLOBE, which, in addition to consolidating papers and case studies, includes a social networking component to allow researchers to communicate and collaborate with one another.     

The GLOBE project began as an idea broached at a small conference dedicated to linking global and local land change. In the summer of 2009, Ellis looked to UMBC’s Computer Science faculty to find collaborators with expertise in computing. “From my point of view, I was really impressed with the depth and breadth of the computing expertise at UMBC,” says Ellis.

Then, a year ago, the research group received initial funding from Geoff Summers, Vice President for Research at UMBC, through the Research Seed Funding Initiative (RSFI). “The seed funding was very important,” says Ellis. The funding enabled the group to develop a prototype before submitting a second proposal to NSF after the first was rejected.   

In addition to GLOBE’s anticipated impact on land change science, the project will also make contributions to the field of Computer Science by way of machine learning algorithms. “What we want to do is to be able to watch people use the system and figure out what their workflow is and then be able to use that information to help novices make better use of the system,” says Dr. Oates, who has previously done research involving workflow analysis through a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project and is excited about applying those ideas to the GLOBE project.

GLOBE is also being applied to the field of Information Systems with the help of Dr. Lutters who is assessing the usefulness of the system by comparing how researchers study land change now to how it will be done when GLOBE is in place.  

Ellis anticipates that GLOBE will take at least two years to complete, with a working version expected within a year. Though it is designed to support the land change science community, GLOBE will be available for free online and has the potential to become an essential tool for researchers in other disciplines (archaeology, for example) and students.

Alexander Morrow is a Sophomore majoring in Computer Science. His research explores predictive model uncertainty. To learn more about Alexander's research, read his research profile.

UMBC has been named an NVIDIA CUDA Teaching Center following the submission of a proposal by Dr. Marc Olano, professor, and Dr. Shujia Zhou, research associate professor of the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department. The NVIDIA CUDA Teaching Center Program will provide UMBC with enough high-end GPUs to upgrade the UMBC GAIM (Games, Animation and Interactive Media) Lab, as well as a Tesla GPU-based computing processor.

Dr. Olano was familiar with NVIDIA’s grant programs through previous equipment grants, and last February, he spoke with David Luebke, Director of Research at NVIDIA, about the CUDA Teaching Center Program. His decision to submit a proposal weighed heavily upon the increasing interest in GPU computing around the UMBC community.

“It’s an important skill for game programming,” says Dr. Olano, who is the director of the Computer Science program’s Game Development Track. He adds that UMBC’s Multicore Computational Center (MC2) and High Performance Computing Facility (HPCF) are also moving toward nodes with GPU computing capability and could benefit from the upgrade.  

UMBC is now one of thirty-six NVIDIA CUDA Teaching Center within the U.S., joining schools such as Florida A&M University, Hood College, Purdue University and UCLA. Apart from the generous equipment donation, UMBC’s distinction as a NVIDIA CUDA Teaching Center provides the university with recognition on NVIDIA’s website, access to teaching materials, and the opportunity to receive discounts on some NVIDIA equipment purchases.

Dr. Olano predicts that the newly-enhanced GAIM lab will be usable by the beginning of the Spring semester. The new equipment will enhance game development and parallel programming classes in upcoming semesters, such as CMSC 483: Parallel and Distributed Processing, which will be taught by Dr. Shujia Zhou in the upgraded lab this Spring. 

How to Raise Capital in Maryland

Art Jacoby
Managing Partner, Maryland Cyber Investment Partners

4:00pm Tuesday 27 September 2011

Courtyard Meeting Room
Maryland Clean Energy TechnologyIncubator (CETI)
UMBC Sounth Campus

Capital is the fuel your business needs to drive growth but raising it will be one of the most daunting challenges you will face as a CEO with a promising venture. Since not all capital is created equal so it’s essential to learn what types of capital you need, the right sources to get it from and how to work out a reasonable agreement so that you can succeed. Learn the best practices and whatnot to say so that the check will be “on the table".

• The right type of Capital
• The right source of Capital
• Creating the Capital Raise Plan
• Reasonable Expectations
• Selling it!
• Deal Killers
• … and much more!

Art Jacoby is a Managing Partner of Maryland Cyber Investment Partners which provides business guidance, business connections and growth capital to Cyber Security companies. Art is a well-known Maryland business advisor and investor who has mentored and motivated many small IT business entrepreneurs across the region. He serves on the Board of the Technology Council of Maryland and is active in the Chesapeake Regional Technology Council. Art has advised Maryland DBED on cyber security investment and strategic issues and also is on the Board of Maryland’s IT Political Action Committee. His early career at Dayton Hudson, Carlson Companies and Tonka Toys engaged in Corporate M&A, financial and strategic planning gave him a deep understanding of how great businesses operate. He has spent most of his career helping small IT entrepreneurs develop and execute practical, affordable strategies and tactics to achieve sustainable competitive advantage and earnings growth. Art and MCIP are here to serve Maryland’s IT entrepreneurs.

Sponsors: Whiteford Taylor Preston and Baltimore County

Please RSVP to Dr. Bjorn Frogner, Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address.