The Central Intelligence Agency’s latest leak is the most recent major hack exposing information that could possibly compromise national security. In The Conversation, Anupam Joshi and Rick Forno, explain that this hack is a reminder of how cyberdefense strategies must be continually improved to ensure sensitive information is protected.

Joshi is a professor and chair of the department of computer science and electrical engineering and director of UMBC’s Center for Cybersecurity, and Forno is the assistant director of the UMBC Center for Cybersecurity and director of UMBC’s graduate program in cybersecurity. Their latest article has been republished by media across the globe and has been read more than 20,000 times.

“This round of leaks, of documents dating from 2013 to 2016,…reinforces perhaps the most troubling piece of information we already know: Individuals and the government itself must step up cyberdefense efforts to protect sensitive information,” write Joshi and Forno.

They ask readers to consider the risk to security and privacy compared with the benefits and convenience of modern technologies. “As citizens, we must decide what level of risk we — as a nation, a society and as individuals — are willing to face when using internet-connected products.”

Any electronic device connected to the internet is susceptible to a cyber attack, Joshi and Forno go on to explain, noting, “It’s not necessarily a good idea to have always-on and network-enabled microphones or cameras in every room of the house.”

Joshi also spoke with CBS Baltimore about how hacks can impact technologies consumers use every day, such as cars that now feature high tech navigation and entertainment systems. “The more electronic gizmos you have in your car, the newer the car you have, the more you’re connected to the network with your car, the greater the probability something can be done to your car,” he explained. Still, he noted, a hacker would need to have advanced technical knowledge and, likely, close proximity to the car to carry out such an attack.

To ensure that sensitive information is protected, Joshi and Forno say that focusing on “the mundane tasks of cyberdefense” is essential to maintaining security for everyone, from government to individuals, although they emphasize that no internet-connected technologies are immune to cyber hacks. Ultimately, they write, “Keeping others out of key systems is crucial to American national security, and to the proper function of our government, military and civilian systems.”

Read the full article in The Conversation, and watch the complete interview on CBS Baltimore.  Adapted from an article in UMBC News.

Join the UMBC Computer Science Education Club and the Center for Women in Technology for a free screening of the award winning film, CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap. The documentary exposes the dearth of American female and minority software engineers and explores the reasons for this gender gap. CODE raises the question: what would society gain from having more women and minorities code?

CODE will be screened on Friday March 31 at 3:00-5:00pm in ITE 104.  A discussion about the film will immediately follow the screening. Snacks will be provided!  RSVP via myUMBC to let the organizers know you will be there on Friday 3/31!.

Here’s a trailer for the film:

UMBC CSEE Seminar Series

Phase synchrony in heart-brain interactions predicts personality and emotions

Ehsan Shokri Kojori
NIH, National Institute on Alcoloh Abuse and Alcoholism

1:00-2:00pm Friday, 17 March 2017, ITE 231

Despite the historical interest in the link between brain and heart, it is unknown whether brain and heart interactions provide meaningful information about emotions and personality. Here we studied the phase and amplitude of coherence between cardiac pulse and resting state fMRI signals in 203 subjects. We show low-frequency (LF, < 0.1 Hz) components of the resting-state networks (RSN) share significant content with corresponding components in physiological recordings. We found LF cardiovascular components precede those in RSNs, and LF respiratory components follow those in RSNs. Phase dispersion (in LF) between cardiac (but not respiratory) and RSN signals predicted a main positivity-negativity dimension of personality (r = 0.31, p < 0.0001) and emotions (r = 0.24, p = 0.001). Specifically, higher phase dispersion between cardiac and brain RSNs predicted higher tendency toward negative inclinations. In summary, these results provide evidence that brain-wide sensitivity to cardiovascular signaling predicts a main dimension of personality and emotions. Finally, our analysis of phase dispersion may have diagnostic value in specific neuropsychiatric disorders.

Dr. Ehsan Shokri Kojori joined the Laboratory of Neuroimaging at the NIH National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
 as a postdoctoral IRTA fellow in August 2014 and became a Research Fellow in May 2016. He earned a PhD degree in cognitive neuroscience from the University of Texas at Dallas in Spring 2014. Ehsan also has a background in electrical engineering and signal processing. His interests include combining brain imaging modalities (e.g., fMRI, DTI, and PET) and behavioral measurements to understand the neurocognitive underpinnings of goal directed behavior. His current work involves studying how addiction and alcohol abuse affect efficiency and energetic cost of the brain networks. He is also working on developing novel methodologies to better characterize anatomical and functional brain connectivity indices.

UMBC Grand Challenge Scholars Program

Engaging students in problems that matter

Reviewing applications beginning April 1, 2017

Do you want to help solve important problems facing society? Would you like to join and be part of a vibrant interdisciplinary community? Do you want to be recognized by the National Academy of Engineering for your contributions? Apply to the GCSP program and become a Grand Challenge Scholar!  Open to all UMBC majors.

What are the NAE Grand Challenges?

✔ Fourteen broad problems facing society in sustainability, health, security, and knowledge
✔ Solutions will require interdisciplinary teams and years of sustained effort

What does a UMBC Grand Challenge Scholar do?

✔ Design a personalized program
✔ Explore a selected Grand Challenge through five program areas: research, interdisciplinarity, entrepreneurship, global perspectives and service
✔ Receive formal designation as an NAE Grand Challenge Scholar at graduation

What are the program requirements?

✔ Three one-credit GCSP seminars (GCSP 301, 302, 401)
✔ GC-related experiences in the five program areas, such as coursework, study abroad, internships and mentored research

How and when do I apply?

✔ Apply online at the GCSP website. Applications after April 1 are subject to program capacity
✔ Submit your transcript, short essay answers, two references and optionally a letter of support
✔ Designed for students completing their sophomore year, but all students may apply
✔ Contact GCSP Director Professor Marie desJardins at  with any questions

How can we begin to use our body as a power source? The same way we use a battery: by harnessing its chemical energy. As part of the annual Baltimore Light City Festival: A Festival of Light, Music and Innovations, Dr. Gymama Slaughter will present her research work on “The body as a battery – harnessing its chemical energy to power wearable and implantable sensors that diagnose and monitor diseases.” Dr. Slaughter will show how her team is converting the biochemical energy in blood sugar into electrical power, and how it is used to power wearable and implantable sensors.

The HealthLab@LightCity conference brings together innovators and leaders from Baltimore and across the nation to explore emerging technologies and innovative practices that have the potential to improve the quality of life and health outcomes for all people, here and around the world.

HealthLab@lightcity is presented by Kaiser Permanente and will be held 8:00am-6:00pm on Monday, 3 April 2017 at the IMET Columbus Center (701 E Pratt St, Baltimore, MD 21202) as part of Baltimore’s annual Light City Festival.

The UMBC Cyber Dawgs will hold a cybersecurity Capture the Flag competition on Saturday, March 11th from 9am-5pm in the Public Policy building. The event will be a jeopardy-style competition where individual competitors answer questions about aspects of cybersecurity, including network forensics, reverse engineering, reconnaissance, and cryptography.

The competition is open to all current UMBC students, both beginners and experts alike. Participants will learn and execute both offensive and defensive security practices that are relevant in today’s computing environments using their laptops to access a system that provides hints and guidance on completing the challenges.

Top performers will receive prizes, including a new ChromeBook, a Wireless Pineapple Nano and a YARD Stick One. There will also be door prizes for a few randomly selected, lucky participants, including some Raspberry PIs. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Some of the Cyber Dawg club’s sponsors will be at the event for students to network with, so bring your resumes.

Students who are interested must register online in advance and bring a laptop to the event. Registration and participation is free but space is limited.

CSEE Department Distinguished Seminar

Accelerating Technology Disruption: The Cognitive Revolution

Dr. Arvind Krishna
Senior Vice President, Hybrid Cloud and Director, IBM Research

1:00-2:00pm, Friday, 24 February 2017, PAHB 132

Digital disruption is changing the world around us, breaking down traditional barriers to market entry, creating new business models, and leading to new solutions to global challenges. Dr. Arvind Krishna will examine some of the core emerging technologies driving this phenomenon today, with an emphasis on artificial intelligence/cognitive computing. He will also share his perspectives on what it takes to build a successful, high-impact technical career in an era of disruptive innovation.

Arvind Krishna is senior vice president, Hybrid Cloud, and director of IBM Research. In this role, he leads the company’s hybrid cloud business, including strategy, product design, offering development, marketing, sales and service. He also helps guide IBM’s overall technical strategy in core and emerging technologies including cognitive computing, quantum computing, cloud platform services, data-driven solutions and blockchain. Previously, Arvind was general manager of IBM Systems and Technology Group’s development and manufacturing organization, responsible for developing and engineering everything from advanced semiconductor materials to leading-edge microprocessors, servers and storage systems.

Earlier in his career, he was general manager of IBM Information Management, which included database, information integration and big data software solutions. Prior to that, he was vice president of strategy for IBM Software. He has held several key technical roles in IBM Software and IBM Research, where he pioneered IBM’s security software business. Arvind has an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the recipient of a distinguished alumni award from the University of Illinois, is the co-author of 15 patents, has been the editor of IEEE and ACM journals, and has published extensively in technical conferences and journals.

Josiah Dykstra, Ph.D. ‘13, computer science, has received the prominent Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE) for his work on digital forensics cloud computing, with applications in tackling cybercrime.

While he was a graduate student at UMBC, Dykstra worked full-time at the National Security Agency, where he remains a cybersecurity researcher, but for his dissertation took a fresh path and selected an area of research very different from his projects at the agency. Dykstra worked in UMBC’s Cyber Defense Lab with Alan Sherman, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, and studied how crimes using computers are tracked through information stored on the computers themselves and in email accounts.

To determine whether and how a crime occurred, Dykstra explains, a law enforcement official may need to extract data from a phone or computer using a third party vendor. He looked at whether law enforcement could trust that the data they are having analyzed to have not been manipulated. The legal and trust issues associated with accessing such data, and the technical and legal challenges associated with information stored on electronics, formed the central focus of Dykstra’s graduate work.

Reflecting on his PECASE award, Dykstra shares, “I didn’t know when I was doing the work at UMBC that it was a possibility” to receive this kind of recognition. He hopes his achievement offers encouragement for students currently working through their dissertations, tackling challenging research questions. “It’s helpful for students to see people who have done work like this,” he says.

The PECASE is one of the highest honors the federal government can bestow on early-stage science and engineering researchers. PECASE award recipients are presented with their awards during a ceremony at the White House, which will be held in the coming months.

Other recent PECASE recipients from UMBC include Kafui Dzirasa ‘01, chemical engineering, now an assistant assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University, who received the award in spring 2016, and Justin Jacobs ‘14 Ph.D., statistics, who was recognized in spring 2014.

Adapted from a UMBC News post. Header image by Geoff Livingston, CC by 2.0.