The Center

UAB research finds new channels to trigger mobile malware

Horton — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:29:05 +0000

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have uncovered new hard-to-detect methods that criminals may use to trigger mobile device malware that could eventually lead to targeted attacks launched by a large number of infected mobile devices in the same geographical area. Such attacks could be triggered by music, lighting or vibration. Read more at UAB News….

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Big Data Conference – May 23, 2013

Horton — Sun, 05 May 2013 20:51:43 +0000

UAB Alumni Society House

Register Now

Agenda

7:30 a.m. Registration

8:00 a.m. Welcome and Introductory Remarks

Dr. Tony Skjellum, Chair for UAB Computer and Information Sciences
Director of the Center for Information Assurance and Joint Forensics Research

8:15 a.m. Keynote Speaker

Jean-Luc Chatelain, EVP Strategy & Technology for DataDirect Networks Inc.
Jean-Luc Chatelain joined DDN in February 2011 with several decades of experience as a technology industry leader. Most recently, Chatelain was as a distinguished Hewlett-Packard Fellow responsible for successfully leading HP’s Information Optimization strategy, steering the entry of HP into the ILM space. Chatelain also founded Persist Technologies Inc., a leader in reference information storage software which was acquired by HP. Prior to that, Chatelain co-invented the SmartCell™, the world’s first application-centric enterprise storage technology, and created a breakthrough medical imaging workflow technology for Cemax-Icon, which experienced significant growth as a result of this innovation before being acquired by Imation/Eastman Kodak.

9:15 a.m. BREAK

9:30 a.m. Elliot Lefkowitz – Biology, Bioinformatics, and Big Data: Trying to survive in the trenches

Associate Professor in Microbiology at UAB

10:15 a.m. Dr. Andrew Lumsdaine

Director for Research in Extreme Scale Technologies at Indiana University

11:00 a.m. Lunch

Center Video

12:00 p.m. Jose Alvarez

Global Director for Life Sciences at DataDirect Networks

12:45 p.m. Dr. Carlos Sosa

Chemistry and Life Sciences Section Manager at Cray, Inc.

1:30 p.m. Dr. Eta Berner – Big Data Challenges in Sharing and Utilizing Clinical Data

Professor in Health Informatics at UAB

2:15 p.m. Break

2:30 p.m. Joe Popinski – Splunk

3:15 p.m. Dr. Puri Bangalore – Infrastructure to support Big Data

Associate Professor in Computer and Information Sciences at UAB

4:00 p.m. Panel Discussion – All Guest Speakers

4:45 p.m. Closing Remarks, Dr. Tony Skjellum

5:00 p.m. End of Event

Cocktail reception and networking opportunity

Thank you to this year’s sponsors

UAB National Alumni Society

1301 10th Avenue South
Birmingham, AL 35294-4555

Hotels

We did not set up room blocks but you should ask for the UAB rate.

DoubleTree by Hilton, Birmingham
808 20th Street South
Birmingham, AL 35205
205-933-9000

Residence Inn Birmingham Downtown
820 20th Street South
Birmingham, AL 35205
205-731-9595

UAB Big Data Conference

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Cybercrooks use Texas explosion to attack

Horton — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 19:38:05 +0000

“The spammers diversified the message of just focusing on the Boston explosion. Now they have added a line referring to the Texas explosion,” Gary Warner, UAB’s Director of Research in Computer Research, said.

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Geography is covering new ground for travelers

Horton — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:02:12 +0000

The discipline isn’t what you recall from grade school — it runs your GPS and enhances travel planning and on-the-spot decision-making. And it’s advancing.
— Without turning over a single stone, Sarah Parcak, a “space archaeologist” from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has found subterranean structures in the ancient Egyptian city of Tanis. Slow, sweaty excavation has been underway at the Nile Delta site for almost a century.

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Spam attacks centered on Boston marathon bombings

Horton — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 23:39:42 +0000

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) – Crooks are using the public’s desire for more information on the Boston bombing to take over personal computers. UAB researcher and malware tracker, Gary Warner, says cyber criminals are capitalizing on that curiosity with emails that contain malicious links. They either come with a simple link in the body or could be disguised as the latest video from a national news source.

Links to video and articles:

Fox News WBRC-TV, Birmingham, AL [VIDEO]
Crooks use Boston footage to hijack your computer

Los Angeles Times
Spammers capitalizing on Boston bombings to infect computers

Baltimore Sun
Spammers capitalizing on Boston bombings to infect computers

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Spies Like Us Putting a New Spin on Computer Security

Horton — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 18:11:43 +0000

UAB Magazine writes, in the April issue, “Computer security researchers put themselves into the minds of cybercriminals to figure out what they might do next. Nitesh Saxena, Ph.D., takes a different approach. His mission is to get inside the minds of users—quite literally, in his latest project—to figure out how to protect them from new attacks. ”

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Data Science

Horton — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:14:15 +0000

Data Science — COMING SOON TO THE CENTER.

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Geospatial Informatics and Imagery

Horton — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:13:35 +0000

Geospatial Science has played a crucial role in the detection of potential harmful activities since the launching of the first balloons for surface warfare in the 1860’s during the Civil War. Since then, from airplanes to rockets to state of the art high resolution satellites, advances in geospatial science have gone hand in hand with technology improvements.

Our Geospatial Analytics group uses a combination of high resolution and NASA satellite images to map the Earth’s surface in 4D: change through time. It is these short and long term landscape changes that allow us to make informed decisions about how ongoing activities (both illicit and natural) may affect agent-based choices. Understanding the social impacts of these changes has implications for major 21st century issues, including global security, water access, environmental change, and cultural resource management.

Our team leverages key industry partnerships to use the most cutting edge software and approaches to analyze layers of image data to detect subtle patterns that otherwise may be overlooked. Our very future may depend on this.

Processes
Initiatives
Successes
Resources

Geospatial Analytics Processess

Satellite image processing Procuring high quality satellite imagery and using standard image processing programs and tools for their analysis

GIS database building Layering geospatial data with statistical information to detect changes over time

Initiatives

Archaeological site looting in Egypt We are quantifying the extent of archaeological site looting in Egypt based high resolution satellite images (including Quickbird, Geoeye, WorldView-2, and EROS B satellite imagery). This has implications for the protection of archaeological sites across the Mediterranean, North Africa, and the Middle East. Overall, the satellite images show a significant increase in site looting in Egypt. Quickly tasked satellite imagery can aid governments and the scientific community in the protection of their cultural heritage, and is critical to stop the illicit trade in antiquities. Looted archaeological materials are used by crime syndicates to raise funds for drugs, guns, and other crime related activities. This makes the stopping of archaeological site looting a critical matter for international security efforts, especially in Egypt where the type and quantity of the site looting suggests intensive crime cartel involvement

Successes

BBC Egypt/Rome
Multiple major international archaeological site mapping projects have taken place in collaboration with the BBC (UK) and many universities.

Resources

Coming Soon!

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Health Informatics

Horton — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:12:08 +0000

Health Informatics — COMING SOON TO THE CENTER.

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Information Assurance/Security

Horton — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 19:07:37 +0000

Information Assurance concerns the protection of the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information and systems that process, store, and/or transmit data. These systems are referred to as information systems and serve as critical systems for government, commercial, and private entities and initiatives. They are also in the cross-hairs of cyber criminals, disgruntled employees, and other malicious (and non-malicious) threats, a continuously evolving threat landscape from which new and innovative solutions are required.

The Center’s information assurance pillar brings together the research, service, and teaching capabilities of UAB faculty and staff across campus toward the pursuit of innovative research designs, analytical methods, theories, and practices in the prevention, detection, and remediation of threats to information systems.

Processes
Initiatives
Successes
Resources

Processes

Behavioral Information Security: developing theories to explain human behavior in the violation or protection of information assets; applying theories and innovative research designs toward a better understanding of human perceptions of threat and threat response scenarios

Initiatives

Enterprise Cyber Security Efficacy Theory (ECSET): The primary research objectives of this initiative are to understand how enterprise user communities formulate a collective efficacy toward cyber security initiatives and to apply this understanding toward the development and application of an Enterprise Cyber Security Efficacy Theory (ECSET). This proposed research entails three phases. Phase 1, which has already started, entails the use of Weber’s (2012) framework and criteria for theory evaluation to critically examine the applicability of Social Disorganization Theory (SDT) to the study of the enterprise cyber security phenomenon. Phase 2 leverages the insight gained from Phase 1 and Boyatzis’ (1998) thematic analysis approach to theory building toward the development a new theory appropriate to the study of enterprise cyber security efficacy, while Phase 3 involves empirical tests of the theory.

Priming Fear Appeals Project (PrimeFAM): Fear appeals have already been shown to be effective organizational levers to influence employee behaviors (in the context of complying with recommended secure behaviors in the workplace, a very practical goal), but their effectiveness is dependent, in large part, to the degree to which the threats they convey are perceived as relevant to their intended audience. Relevant messages address relevant threats and are more likely to be cognitively appraised, whereas irrelevant messages concern irrelevant threats and are more likely to be peripherally appraised. Cognitive message appraisal is the goal of information security message architects and conveyors as it involves critical assessment of the message’s core arguments. This project leverages the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to develop and test a relational model for describing the influence of priming on the precondition to cognitive message appraisal and protection motivated behaviors, perceived message relevance. In this project, the team will establish a rigorous experimental research design to answer the following research questions: How does priming influence protection motivated behaviors among persuasive message recipients? and How does priming influence message elaboration leading to protection motivated behaviors?

Playful Security Lead: Nitesh Saxena Funding: NSF, Google: The security of computer systems often relies on actions or decisions of the end users. However, users remain unmotivated and indifferent to accomplish security tasks as stipulated, or they fail to comply with security instructions. In an attempt to tackle this problematic state of current user-involved security practices, this project embarks upon foundational work on a novel research direction called “Playful Security.” Playful approaches to security will motivate and incentivize the users, while they perform security tasks, through the perception of fun and entertainment.

At a higher level, the project is investigating the use of a reward system based on the principles of extrinsic motivation. Moreover, in order to make security tasks entertaining, computer games are being adopted to facilitate user involvement. In other words, the user would be asked to play a short and an intuitive game which accomplishes the underlying security task as a side effect. Based on the sheer popularity of games, playful security promises to appeal to a large fraction of user population (especially the youth).

This project explores the playful security paradigm in the context of three application domains:

Wireless Device Association (pairing): bootstrapping secure communication between two previously unassociated wireless devices.
User Authentication: proving that a user is indeed who the user claims to be.
Service Abuse Resilience: defending against automated mechanisms that attack and abuse the resources of an online entity.

Neural Signatures of User-Centered Security Interactions Lead: Nitesh Saxena UAB Collaborator: Rajesh Kana (Psychology) Funding: Pending: Computing has become increasingly common in many spheres of users’ daily lives. At the same time, the need for securing computer systems has become paramount. To enable secure on-line interactions, actions performed, and decisions made, by human users need to be factored into system design – a principle sometimes referred to as “human in the loop”. Two prominent examples are: (1) distinguishing between a legitimate and a fake web-site (phishing attack), and (2) heeding warnings provided by modern browsers when connecting to potentially malicious web-sites (malware attack). User attitudes, perceptions, acceptance and use of information technology have been long-standing issues since the early days of computing. This is especially true in the context of secure computing since user behavior can directly or indirectly impact security of the system. In this light, it is very important to understand users’ behavior in conducting security tasks and their potential susceptibility to attacks.

In this project, we introduce a novel methodology for studying user-centered security – one that involves neurological scanning. Our overarching goal is to delineate the nature of cognitive and neural processes that underlie poor security decisions during human-computer interactions. This specific goal will be achieved via fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanning, which will provide unique insights into user-centered security from a cognitive/neurological perspective. As a first line of investigation into our methodology, we are conducting fMRI experiments to shed light on end users’ performance with respect to phishing and malware attacks. Studying these two real-life problems for computer security is important, since poor security decisions or actions can have grave security implications, e.g., disclosure of sensitive information. Our experiments will also involve three psychological tasks designed to measure users’ inherent personality traits that may affect their security behavior: (1) multitasking capability, (2) response inhibition, and (3) impulsivity.

Contextual and Small Device Security Lead: Nitesh Saxena Funding: NSF: Striking the right balance between usability and security is an open research challenge. We propose to address this challenge by investigating a promising approach, one that leverages a wealth of contextual information. We will begin by addressing a specific example problem: zero-interaction authentication schemes are essential for usability (no user involvement) in certain situations, but are vulnerable to relay attacks. The standard defense against relay attack using techniques for distance-bounding is often impractical. A more realistic approach is to have the parties sense their respective current ambient context along multiple modalities and compare them to see if they can conclude that they are co-present in the same context. We will take an experimental approach to answer basic question of how to determine contextual co-presence, which requires answering a number of sub-questions. We will demonstrate the importance of the problem and usefulness of the solution by first showing how to mount a relay attack and then showing how contextual co-presence detection can thwart such attacks (still with zero user interaction).

Generalizing from such point problems, we will lay the foundation for contextual security as a research direction and develop a contextual security framework that can be applied to several other problems where usability and security needs to be achieved simultaneously. Examples include: (1) better alternatives for idle-screen locking/unlocking in smart devices, (2) application-specific policy enforcement, (3) contextual malware defense for smart devices and (4) deciding when to require multi-factor authentication.

Intrusion-Tolerant User-Centric Security and Cryptographic Services Lead: Nitesh Saxena Funding: NSF: This project takes a fresh look at the general problem of protecting Alice’s private data s (such as confidential documents, saved passwords, and cryptographic keys) in the event of the compromise or failure of the device on which s is stored. Storing an encryption of s using a key derived from Alice’s password, as is a common practice, is vulnerable to an offline password dictionary attack once the device is corrupted, and it is also not robust to device failure. The same problem arises when outsourcing and storing s, or its encryption, onto a remote online server (assuming internet connectivity), an approach currently adopted by many online storage and remote password management systems. To improve the availability and secrecy of the outsourced private data, the project focuses on the notion of (t; n) User-Controlled Intrusion-tolerant Storage (UC-IS) (t < n is a security parameter). UC-IS enables Alice to distribute her data among n trustees so that: (1) Alice can retrieve her data by triggering a reconstruction protocol, using say her password, and the reconstruction is guaranteed as long as at least t + 1 honest trustees are available; and (2) Alice’s data remains secret even when t trustees are corrupted, and the level of this protection is as expected of password-authenticated protocol, i.e., if Alice chooses her password uniformly in set D then the probability that adversary learns anything about Alice’s data after triggering q instances of the reconstruction protocol is at most q/|D| plus some negligible quantity.

The project sets out to investigate: (I) a suite of new protocols for the UC-IS and related functionality that are as efficient as standard public-key authentication or key exchange, and (II) implementation and evaluation of a fully-blown system/framework which builds upon these protocols to provide a broad range of fault-tolerant user-centric security and cryptographic services. The targeted applications include: (1) online data storage, (2) remote password management, (3) secure cryptographic key storage, and (4) establishment of initial security association.

Safety and Security of Emerging Mobile Payment Platforms UAB Collaborators: David Schwebel (Psychology); John Sloan (Justice Sciences) Funding: UAB CIA|JFR: Despite recent burgeoning deployment of mobile point of sale (mPOS) devices (e.g., Square™), little is known about users’ (consumers’ and vendors’) perceptions about them. When connected to a personal smart phone or tablet, these devices enable convenient online processing of payments for goods or services. However, central to the success of such transactions is consumers’ confidence regarding the security of these devices – the perceived risk for fraud or identity theft should be small, otherwise consumers will be unwilling to use these devices. Thus, although mPOS devices may enhance the efficiency and convenience of online transactions, little is known about their impact on consumer fear and perceived risk of victimization which arise from perceived security risks associated with the devices when compared to traditional POS readers. Fear and perceived risk of victimization may be further elevated when the vendor involved is a small business, like a taxi driver who collects fares using an mPOS device, rather than a well-known retailer like Wal Mart. Complicating the situation is the type of mPOS device employed. Some attach to the vendor’s smart phone/tablet and involve swiping the customer’s credit/debit card — similar to traditional POS readers. Other mPOS devices require manually entering the customer’s card numbers into the phone/tablet. Still others take a picture of the card using the phone’s camera.

In short, convenience and efficiency may be offset by consumer distrust and increased levels of risk and fear of becoming a victim. To examine these issues, we propose conducting a case study that explores consumer trust (or lack thereof) with respect to mPOS devices. We seek to understand the dynamics of consumer perceived risk and fear of using these devices for electronic payments, and aim to answer the following research questions. How familiar are consumers with this technology? What are their specific concerns with it? What risks do they associate with these devices and how fearful are they of being victimized? Does consumer perceived risk and fear vary by type of device? On the vendor side, we seek to identify the considerations that vendors — particularly small businesses — have when choosing a specific device. For instance, is cost the primary driver or are there other factors?

Successes

The Center’s Dr. Allen Johnston co-authored a study recently published in Computers & Security describing the future directions for behavioral information security research and another in the Journal of Organizational and End User Computing investigating the role of remote status in determining employee security policy awareness.: Crossler, Robert, Allen C. Johnston, Paul Benjamin Lowry, Qing Hu, Merrill Warkentin, and Richard Baskerville. “Future Directions for Behavioral Information Security Research,” Computers & Security, Volume 32, February 2013, pp. 90-101.; Johnston, Allen C., Barbara Wech, and Eric Jack. “Engaging Remote Employees: The Moderating Role of “Remote” Status in Determining Employee Information Security Policy Awareness.” Journal of Organizational and End User Computing, Volume 25, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 1-23.

The Center’s Dr. Nitesh Saxena’s, the founding director of the Security and Privacy in Emerging Systems (SPIES) group/lab, current security research has been externally supported by multiple grants from NSF, and by gifts/awards/donations from the industry, including Google, Intel, Nokia and Research in Motion. His lab has published over 60 journal, conference and workshop papers, many at top-tier venues in Computer Science, including: IEEE Transactions, ACM CCS, ACM WiSec, ACM CHI, ACM Ubicomp, IEEE Percom, and IEEE S&P. On the educational/service front, Dr. Saxena is a co-director for UAB’s MS program in Computer Forensics and Security Management, starting January 2013. Visit http://spies.cis.uab.edu to locate our research publications and project details.

Resources

Business of Information Systems Bachelors and Masters Online Degree
Security and Privacy In Emerging computing and networking Systems (SPIES lab)

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Forensic Science

Horton — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:42:05 +0000

Forensic Science has been in practice for about as long as there have been crimes to solve. Because when it comes to gathering evidence in a crime, the devil really is in the details. And as criminal enterprise has evolved, so has the science of exposing those who do wrong.

The Center’s Forensic Science department is on the forefront of this evolution. As criminals get more ambitious, their methods more sophisticated, and whole communities devoted to “how to get away with it” emerge online, our efforts to stay at least one step ahead continue to take new and exciting shapes.

From taking down illicit online pharmaceutical operations to identifying terrorists with “touch” DNA analysis, our team is forging a safer future—starting with the tiniest of details.

Processes
Initiatives
Successes
Resources

Processes

Forensic Chemistry:

Forensic Analysis of Drugs
– Procuring and researching emerging drugs of abuse, including “legal highs” such as second and third generation Bath Salts and Spice
– Developing new technologies to identify clandestine laboratories used to manufacture such drugs as methamphetamine and mephedrone
– Using microcrystal tests to identifiy controlled substances, including cocaine and meth, in the presence of cutting agents (e.g., lidocaine and levamisole)
– Identifying illicit online pharmaceutical operations that distribute prescription drugs without proper manufacturing controls, safety information, and quality assurances, or that may not be providing the correct drug to begin with
Forensic Analysis of Firearms
– Using lasers to identify residue in cases in which gunpowder is not present
Forensic Analysis of Circulating Currency
– Identifying the presence of controlled substances on US and International currency (bank notes) for the purpose of identifying shifting patterns of drug abuse in particular regions
– Determining the weights for different mechanisms by which drug residue is transferred onto circulating currency

Forensic Biology:

Forensic DNA Analysis
– Extracting DNA from submerged materials such as clothing to assist in identifying human remains (e.g., a missing persons case)
– Developing cost-effective DNA kits for use in research and education
– Conducting comprehensive study of commercial kits used in detecting blood evidence at crime scenes in the context of subsequent DNA testing
– Analysis of “touch” DNA on fabric and credit cards to identify if a suspect has handled the object
– Analysis of “touch” DNA from self-adhesive postage stamps to identify terrorists (e.g., mail-bombers)
Forensic Drug Analysis
– Detecting drugs of abuse in canines (e.g., steroids) to identify dog fighting operations and as an indication of animal abuse

Initiatives

The Pharm-Spam Project: Of the millions of spam emails sent every day, a healthy percentage are pharmaceutical spam. Our Pharm-Spam project involves data mining millions of emails in order to identify the few individuals responsible for operating unlicensed, unregulated, online distribution centers of pharmaceuticals.We also identify the hazards of purchasing prescription drugs from online distributors who may sell counterfeit drugs, drugs that have been discontinued for safety/health reasons, or who fail to provide adequate information about side effects. We then disseminate information to consumers about the hazards of purchasing prescription drugs from online distributors.
Legal Highs: The past few years has a seen a flood of synthetic substances onto the market which claim to replicate the highs of popular illegal drugs—many of which can be as harmful as the illicit substances they’re aping.Our Legal Highs project involves identifying these emerging drugs of abuse, like MPA and 6APB, and alerting emergency room personnel and poison control centers to their dangers. We also identify the exact chemical structure of these drugs, in order to aid crime labs in developing a method to identify these drugs.

Successes

Controlled Substances and Currency: To date, drugs other than cocaine have seldom been detected on currency. However, the UAB forensic chemistry lab was recently able to detect methamphetamine on 17 of 20 US one dollar bills obtained from locations in and around Birmingham. Subsequent testing showed that approximately 27% of the currency circulating in metro Birmingham has been contaminated with methamphetamine.

Resources

Our Forensic Scientists’ Blog: Forensic News: VIEW RESOURCE→

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Intelligence Analytics

Horton — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:38:34 +0000

Our Intelligence Analytics division fully rounds out the Information Assurance capabilities of The Center. If our Cybercrime division deals with the 1’s and 0’s of information assurance in their computer forensics labs, then our Intelligence Analytics division handles the 2’s through 9’s.

Human behavioral patterns and anomalies, signals, imagery, measurements and signatures; these are the purview of our Intel Analytics division. Because when it comes to Information Assurance, sometimes the real intelligence isn’t in what’s presented as the truth—it’s what’s behind the “facts.” And ensuring the integrity of your information begins with Intelligence Analytics.

Processes

Intel Analytics:

Consultation & Investigation
1. Conduct first tier social and behavioral cause-and-effect analysis through interview dialogue with the client, as well as independent verification via external due diligence.
2. Identify the information gaps or shortfalls (IRs), then prioritize them (PIRs) and build Intelligence Information Requests (IIRs).
Analysis, Assessment and Definition of Results Targeted
3. Develop our Intelligence Collection Plan to address IRs derived from #2.
4. Qualify & Quantify #3 against constraint parameters of money, time, law, ethics, public opinion, etc.
Methodology & Course of Action Recommendation(s)
5. Assemble our first tier Threat/Vulnerability Assessment.
6. Juxtapose #5 vs. #4 in an effort to apprise the Client of potential measures, countermeasures, counter-countermeasures. etc.
7. Refine and restate the Client’s perceived Mission Statement in view of these contextual factors surrounding their decision-making environment.
Implementation (including Simulation & Modeling if applicable)
8. Identify, Assess and War-Game Course(s) of Action (CoAs) in the context of civil/criminal, kinetic/non-kinetic, etc. redress vehicles available to the Client.
9. Rank order #8 CoAs against the consequence management parameters of #4 and #6.
10. Offer the Center’s Recommendation(s) in the form of Informed CoAs via decision support matrices so that the Client may best achieve decision-advantage over his adversaries in successful accomplishment of their Mission Statement.
Resiliency Training and Education
11. Tailor self-assessment and maintenance programs to the Client’s needs; leveraging benefits of subjective institutional insider knowledge with that to be derived from objective periodic external assessments and compliance audits going forward.
12. Partner with our Clients to evolve over time a corporate culture change from one of neglecting to one of protecting every organization’s second most precious assets (i.e., proprietary information).

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Workforce Development

Horton — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 04:52:39 +0000

The 21st century workforce will look much different than that of the last century. Increasingly, business, industry, and government face new technology challenges involving cybersecurity and cybercrime — many of which did not even exist as recently as 10 years ago. The Center’s efforts in workforce development spearhead educating and training students and practitioners to fill jobs in the 21st century economy by insuring they possess necessary technological skills, and cyber-knowledge and ability to find entry-level and advanced positions in the public and private sectors.

Key to Center efforts in workforce development are three activities: 1) Center affiliation with undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs housed in the Departments of Computer and Information Sciences and Justice Sciences, among others which facilitates experiential learning; 2) Center pursuit of development opportunities relating to sponsored scholarships or similar types of support for students enrolled in Center affiliated programs; and 3) use of Center facilities by business, industry, and government to train students and practitioners on new tools and applications.

Processes
Initiatives
Successes
Resources

Processes

Education that includes experiential learning via working in cyber-related labs and through internships in business, industry, and government
Training in new tools and protocols
Mentoring and network building
Career Counseling

Initiatives

Ph.D. in Forensic Science and Technology in development: designed to train the next generation of scientists for R&D and teaching in traditional “wet” forensics (e.g., DNA, drug chemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology) and “digital” forensics (e.g., cybercrime, computer forensics, network and computer and small device security)
B.S. in Digital Forensics in development: designed to train and educate undergraduate students with interests in computer science and criminal justice for entry level positions in business, industry, and government

Successes

Internet Identity annual sponsored scholarships for undergraduate computer science and criminal justice students provides funding to cover tuition and fees for up to 4 students annually (total of $20K annually in support)
Center for Academic Excellence and Research (CAE-R) designation from the Department of Homeland Security (DHA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) which will make available scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students to pursue degrees relating to information assurance, cybersecurity, and related fields
Member of the Tennessee Valley Corridor Forensics Initiative which focuses on four core areas determined by legislative and industry leaders in the Corridor, including workforce development, to ensure the future needs of business, industry, and government are met and the region serves as a national model
Graduate “A” and “B” certificate programs in computer forensics, jointly sponsored by the Departments of Computer and Information Sciences and Justice Sciences allows degree and non-degree seeking students to pursue certification in computer forensics via courses and training occurring in Center laboratories
Master of Science in Computer Forensics and Security Management (MSCFSM) jointly sponsored with the Departments of Computer and Information Sciences, Justice Sciences (College of Arts & Sciences), and Management, Information Systems, and Quantitative Methods (School of Business) which take advantage of laboratory training in Center facilities and the Center’s new Facebook Suite
Internships with the Birmingham field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Alabama Bureau of Investigation allow students to obtain experience with government agencies while still in college

Resources

National Initiative in Cybersecurity Education
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Tennessee Valley Corridor 1st Annual Forensics Symposium (9/13/2012, Knoxville, TN)

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Cybercrime

IT Admin — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 20:21:19 +0000

THE CENTER’S CYBERCRIME DIVISION is a direct response to the growing need for security in an increasingly connected world. Once upon a time, stories of online credit card fraud and identity theft were rare, even exotic occurrences. But now, over 85% of the world’s email is spam, and more than 20,000 phishing web sites are created every month—which makes our work more important than ever.

The fact is, cybercrime has become a booming industry. Cybercriminals are gaining the edge in manpower, technology and geography; putting law enforcement, security professionals and the general public at a serious disadvantage. So, in addition to investigating cybercrime and tracking criminals, our daily work is designed to provide the world with the superior tools, techniques and training needed to guard against these threats.

And since The Center is engaging students on the front lines of our daily efforts, we’re not just combating today’s threats—we’re also training the next generation of cybercrimefighters.

Processes
Initiatives
Successes
Resources

Processes

Documentation: Documenting problems through detailed accounts with law enforcement agencies and others on the front lines.
Recommendation: Making direct recommendations to agencies based on our current knowledge.
Investigation: Interfacing with cybercrime victims, whether they be corporations, individuals, or government branches, and providing them with better solutions to analyze what has happened to them, report it properly, and preserve it for proper investigation.
Analysis: Studying current investigative methods and proposing alternatives, then measuring these alternative methods in the real world and reporting on our results.

Initiatives

UAB Spam Data Mine: The UAB Spam Data Mine for Law Enforcement project is a collaborative effort in which we invite the contribution of spam email to our collection, a massive body of evidence which is clustered and analyzed to provide significant forensic and investigative data to law enforcement.The Spam Data Mine is an invaluable tool for helping these agencies regularly identify, arrest, and successfully prosecute criminal spammers. Ultimately, our goal is for this task to be automated and regularly practiced, so that the spam email industry will cease to be worth the effort for its perpetrators.
UAB Phishintel: The UAB PhishIntel portal provides access for our partners in law enforcement and business to an extensive collection of confirmed phishing cases. Phishing emails and sites cost unsuspecting citizens millions of dollars every week, and their creators are often responsible for dozens of active sites at any given time.Our Phishintel Portal allows us, in conjunction with our partners, to identify working patterns among the data and potentially combine many unique phishing sites into a single case for law enforcement. We are also working with other anti-phishing organizations and law enforcement to develop early warning systems and actionable advice to brand owners, which would allow them to protect their consumers.This tool is provided as a free resource to law enforcement agencies, and other investigators are invited to apply as well. Simply contact us.

Successes

The Center’s Gary Warner featured on NBC’s “Rock Center” for work with FBI: Gary Warnerspeaks with NBC Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel about his group’s work with the FBI in bringing down a $70 million international cybercrime ring.READ MORE→

Resources

Cybercrime & Doing Time: Gary Warner’s blog: VIEW RESOURCE→

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On Your Side: New UAB app defends against malware

Horton — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 23:22:37 +0000

Dr. Saxena’s team of researchers have developed an app that defends against mobile malware. They call it Tap-Wave-Rub or TWR. This new app was recently featured on Fox 6 News. You can read the story and watch the report on myFoxAL.com. (video link)

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UAB develops a simple defense for complex smartphone malware

Horton — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:31:24 +0000

Dr. Nitesh Saxena and UAB SPIES (Security and Privacy In Emerging computing and networking Systems) researchers have developed simple but effective techniques to prevent sophisticated malware from secretly attacking smartphones.

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Dr. Nitesh Saxena gives Public WIFI Safety Tips to NBC Alabama 13′s Linda White

Horton — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:52:49 +0000

Fast-food restaurants, hotels, libraries, you name it, they’ve got wi-fi these days, free for the taking.

But how safe is public wi-fi?

How does UAB Computer Scientist Nitesh Saxena answer that question?

13 Investigates: Wi-Fi thieves, by Linda White, NBC’s Alabama 13 News

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Hackers take aim at key U.S. infrastructure

Horton — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:38:54 +0000

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The Center – the Video

Horton — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 23:01:51 +0000

UAB Center for Information Assurance and Joint Forensics Research is a multidisciplinary research center with a broad focus on Information Assurance, and how our modern connected society impacts that information. Since information has long been and will continue to be at the heart of virtually every human enterprise, our work has the potential to touch the lives of every connected person in the modern world.

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Sarah Parcak, Ph.D.

Horton — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 21:13:23 +0000

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Amidst a World Filled with Abuse and Cybercrime

Horton — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 22:53:14 +0000

Speaker: Dr. Samuel McQuade – Rochester Institute of Technology
When: Tue, 01/15/2013 - 1:00pm - 2:00pm
Room: HUC 313

ABSTRACT

Cybercrime takes many forms and continues to evolve with technology. Every year a billion Internet users connect online to risk becoming victimized by strangers, or by people they have “friended” or otherwise thought they really knew and trusted. Cyber bullying is an infamous form of cyber abuse commonly experienced by young users and now criminalized in many states. Social media presents unprecedented opportunities for committing and preventing cyber bullying. This presentation describes cyber bullying now taking place in schools, college campuses and communities throughout the country.

BIOGRAPHY

Samuel C. McQuade III, Ph.D. is Director of the MS in Professional Studies Program at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). A former National Institute of Justice Program Manager and Study Director for the Committee on Law and Justice at the National Research Council, he earned his Ph.D. in Public Policy from the George Mason University. Dr. Mc-Quade has served on the Online Safety Technology Working Group of the National Technology and Information Administration (NITA). During 2010-2012, he designed and supervised professional development training for education officials in how to design and teach cybercrime curricula, courses, and prevention policies in K-12 schools. His research has been funded by the State of New York, the Internet Safety Coalition, and the U.S. Department of Justice, and presented at events hosted by, among other agencies, the Department of Homeland Security; the National Intelligence Council; the National Governors Association; the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School; and dozens of school districts throughout the State of New York. His work has also been featured in stories about youth cybercrime and online victimization by the Wall Street Journal, ABC News, and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). His recent books include: Understanding and Managing Cybercrime;The Encyclopedia of Cybercrime and Cyber Bullying;Living with the Internet; Cyber Stalking and Cyber Bullying, and Internet Addiction and Online Gaming. He is co-authoring the forthcoming Handbook on Cyber Bullyingand Online and Electronic Gaming: Fun, Abuse, Crime and Addiction, and editing the forthcoming five-volume World of Cybercrime: Issues, Cases and Responses.

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Carmeliza Navasca

Horton — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:23:59 +0000

Biography for this member of The Center is forthcoming.

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Cali Fidopiastis

Horton — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:07:04 +0000

Biography for this member of The Center is forthcoming.

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Aubrey Hill

Horton — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 18:54:13 +0000

Biography for this member of The Center is forthcoming.

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A Significant Donation from Facebook

IT Admin — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:18:04 +0000

The Center for Information Assurance and Joint Forensics Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham has received a $250,000 donation from Facebook in recognition of the center’s role in tracking international criminals behind social-media botnet Koobface as well as other spammers. The donation, which comes from money Facebook has recovered from spammers located around the world, will be used to expand the new CIA|JFR headquarters.

“As a result of numerous collaborations over the years, Facebook recognizes the center as both a partner in fighting Internet abuse, and as a critical player in developing future experts who will become dedicated cybersecurity professionals,” says Joe Sullivan, chief security officer at Facebook. “The center has earned this gift for their successes in fighting cybercrime and because of the need for formal cybersecurity education to better secure everyone’s data across the world.”

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Lawrence Moose

IT Admin — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 01:35:27 +0000

Lawrence Moose, Program Manager II in the UAB Dept. of Computer and Information Sciences, manages the Center and reports to the Center Director and Associate Director. He began his work with the Center in late Oct. 2012, after serving for over 8 years as the project manager for the Greater Birmingham Mathematics Partnership. This large-scale mathematics education research project, begun in 2004 at Birmingham-Southern College and later transferred to UAB in mid-2006, involved 11 local participating school districts, well over a thousand teachers, more than a hundred schools, and was funded by awards from the National Science Foundation that amounted to more than $12 million. In the 6 years prior to that position, Lawrence served as program director for the AmeriCorps Pinellas (National Service) program at St. Petersburg College, in Pinellas County, Florida, putting college students into service roles with local law enforcement agencies. Lawrence’s professional career began at the American Red Cross in Miami, Florida. In his 8 years of service there, he worked in several different capacities including as coordinator of a vast emergency food distribution program and manager of the branch office in the Upper (FL) Keys. He also served in leadership positions on many disaster relief operations, including the relief effort after Hurricane Andrew. Lawrence holds a B.A. in Public Policy from New College of Florida.

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Internet Identity Scholars Program

Larry Owen — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:33:00 +0000

Internet Identity (IID), a provider of technologies and services that help organizations secure Internet presence, has graciously sponsored another year of scholarships for students in the computer forensics program.

“We are excited that our students will get real-world experience with one of the world’s top Internet security operation teams at IID. Our students will have the opportunity to collaborate to stop cyber-criminals who are using the latest methods to harm consumers and corporations,” says Gary Warner, the UAB Director of Research in Computer Forensics.

“We are honored to commit this annual gift to one of the most advanced cyber-security university programs in the world,” says IID President and CTO Rod Rasmussen. “It is imperative that we help train the next generation of Internet security experts.”

The 2012-2013 Internet Identity Scholars will be recognized in January of 2013 at the annual College of Arts and Sciences Scholarship Luncheon.

For more information on the Internet Identity Scholars Program, please visit the UAB Department of Computer and Information Sciences Scholarship Page

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Chengcui Zhang, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:45:55 +0000

Dr. Chengcui Zhang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She holds a BS and an MS from ZheJiang University in Computer Science and Engineering. She has a PHD in Computer Sciences from Florida International University. She has published more than 100 articles in top-tier conferences such as ACM Multimedia and IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia, and prominent journals such as IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Journal of Intelligent Information Systems, IEEE Multimedia, International Journal of Multimedia Data Engineering and Management, Journal of Multimedia, International Journal of Digital Crime and Forensics, International Journal of Multimedia Tools and Applications, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools, and Software: Practice and Experience. Her research interests include multimedia data mining and databases, information retrieval and reuse, cyber security, and bioinformatics. She has served as a program chair for 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia and 2010 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Ubiquitous Engineering. She is a program chair for 2012 IEEE International Conference on Information Reuse and Integration. She is an Associate Editor of International Journal of Multimedia Data Engineering and Management (IJMDEM) and a guest editor of IEEE Multimedia. She is also on the editorial board of 5 other international journals.

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Jamey Worrell, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:43:48 +0000

James L. ‘Jamey’ Worrell is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he primarily teaches internal auditing and strategic information technologies. Prior to pursuing his doctorate, he was the IT Internal Audit Manager for a Fortune 1000 financial services firm and worked as an Information Security Consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopersLLP. He obtained his M.Acc. in Accounting Information Systems and Ph.D. in Management Information Systems at Florida State University, and holds several professional certifications (CPA, CISA, CIA). His current research interests include ERP post-implementation alignment, information technology governance, and the intersection of auditing and information systems. He has served as a Mini-Track Chair for General Accounting Systems Research at the Americas Conference on Information Systems (2010, 2011, 2012) and as Program Chair of the American Accounting Association’s Strategic and Emerging Technologies midyear meeting (2012). His research has appeared or is forthcoming in International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Issues in Accounting Education, and Information Technology & People, as well as other peer-reviewed outlets.

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Barbara Wech, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:42:17 +0000

Ph.D. Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, Lousiana Organizational Behavior/Human Resources Management, 2001
M.L.I.R. Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan Labor & Industrial Relations, 1987
B.S. Wayne State University Detroit, Michigan Psychology, 1982

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Molly Wasko, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:41:30 +0000

Dr. Molly Wasko is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Management, Information Systems and Quantitative Methods at UAB, where she teaches primarily strategic information technologies, corporate information security and project management. In her role as a senior technology management and education leader at UAB she is ideally suited to lead the i2i program as the program PI and will scout, educate and engage in order to produce pioneering commercial innovations with global impact. After receiving her M.B.A. from Averett University she obtained her doctorate in MIS from the University of Maryland, College Park. Prior to obtaining her doctorate, she spent eight years working in production and operations management. Her research interests include the intersection of digital and social networks, social network analysis, the development of online communities and open source software projects. Her research has been published in MISQ, JAIS, Decision Sciences, Journal of International Management, JCMC, Journal of Strategic IS and JITTA, and has been presented at ICIS, ECIS, AOM, Sunbelt and AMCIS. She currently serves as an AE for MISQ and is on the editorial boards of Decision Sciences and Organization Science.

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Gary Warner

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:39:46 +0000

Gary Warner is the Director of Research in Computer Forensics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He directs the UAB Computer Forensics Research Laboratory (CFRL) a 35-station lab that focuses on developing investigative tools and techniques for analyzing digital evidence in the areas of spam, phishing and malware. Undergraduate and graduate students from the departments of Computer & Information Sciences and Justice Sciences work in the lab. He teaches Computer Security, Introduction to Computer Forensics, Cybercrime & Forensics, and Investigating Online Crime. His research has been published in the Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law and the International Journal of Digital Crime and Forensics, and is a regular presenter in the eCrimes Researchers Summit. Warner supervised the creation of the UAB PhishIntel system, used by more than 300 law enforcement and financial crime investigators, and the UAB Spam Data Mine which analyzes nearly a million spam messages per day for early threat detection. Warner has received the Microsoft MVP award in Enterprise Security five times, the Cyber Crime Fighter Award from the National Cyber Forensics and Training Alliance, and the Partnership Award from the FBI’s Internet Crime and Complaint Center (ic3.gov).

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Alan Sprague, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:34:24 +0000

Dr. Alan Sprague is Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at UAB, and is a member of the Center for Information Assurance and Joint Forensics Research. He performs research in the analysis of spam, especially spam clustering, and has published in the Journal of Digital Forensics, Security, and Law (JDFSL), the Conference on Email and Anti-Spam, and the Symposium on Applied Computing (security track). Her also does research on other aspects of Data Mining, and in Graph Theory.

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Thamar Solorio, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:32:24 +0000

Dr. Thamar Solorio is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She holds a BS degree in Computer Systems Engineering from the Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, Facultad de Ingeniería. Her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees are in Computer Science from the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics, and Electronics. She is the director of the Natural Language Processing (NLP) lab at UAB. Solorio’s research field is NLP, and several of her current research projects involve an emphasis on NLP for Computer Forensics. In particular she has published work on authorship attribution on text from different genres, including social media data. She has also published work on the lexical analysis of Phishing URLs. Her work has been presented at top conference venues, including ACL, NAACL, and EMNLP, as well as high impact journals such as Natural Language Engineering and Artificial Intelligence in Medicine. Solorio is a very active member of her research community, having served as Area chair and faculty advisor for ACL 2011, co-chair of the Young Investigators Workshop on Computational Approaches to Languages of the Americas, and program committee member for several other conferences such as CICLing, NAACL, CLEF, and RANLP. She is also member of the Mexican National System of Researchers and was one of the invited speakers at the 8th workshop of Human Language Technologies from the Mexican Association of Natural Language Processing (AMNLP). Her research projects are currently funded by the National Science Foundation.

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Erin Shonsey, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:30:36 +0000

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Nitesh Saxena, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:29:53 +0000

Nitesh Saxena is an Assistant Professor in the department of Computer and Information Sciences at UAB. He works in the areas of computer and network security, and applied cryptography, and directs the SPIES (Security and Privacy In Emerging computing and networking Systems) research group at UAB. Before joining UAB, he was an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering department at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly), where he conducted research and taught core courses in IA areas.

Prof. Saxena obtained his PhD in Information and Computer Science from UC Irvine. He holds an MS in Computer Science from UC Santa Barbara, and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Computing from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. Prof. Saxena’s PhD dissertation on “Decentralized Security Services” was nominated for the ACM Dissertation Award, 2006. He is the recipient of the Best Student Paper Award at the Applied Cryptography and Network Security (ACNS) conference 2006. Prof. Saxena’s current research is externally supported via multiple grants from NSF, Google, Intel, Nokia and Research in Motion. On the educational front, he was the principal architect and a co-director of NYU-Poly’s M.S. Program in Cyber-Security.

In the year 2011 alone, as a co-author, his articles have or are scheduled to appear in a number of reputed journals and conferences in IA or related areas, including: IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS), IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC), Journal of Computer Security (JCS), ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing (Ubicomp), ACM Conference on Wireless Network Security (WiSec), International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom), and ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), among others. Prof. Saxena has presented at numerous security and cryptography conferences and workshops. He serves or has served on various program committees, including NDSS, WiSec, PKC, ACNS, SecureComm, RFIDSec, CoNext, ISC, CANS, and Globecom.

Full Webpage: http://www.cis.uab.edu/saxena/

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Julio Rivera, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:27:15 +0000

Dr. Rivera is an Associate Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering as well as an MS in Business Computing Science from Texas A&M University, an MBA from the University of Southern Mississippi, and a Doctorate in Business Administration from Mississippi State University. He has published more than fifteen articles and professional papers. During his time at UAB Dr.. Rivera has been intimately involved with the deployment and maintenance of student and faculty computing resources. Currently, Dr. Rivera primarily teaches in the Telecommunications and programming areas. Dr. Rivera has served on several University and School committees. He periodically engages in consulting activities with area organizations. As an immigrant from Honduras, he has had experience working outside the United States with United Fruit Co. subsidiaries, as well as CEMCOL a Honduran corporation. Dr. Rivera is married and has two children.

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Joe Popinski, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:25:30 +0000

Dr. Joe Popinski is currently serving as Acting Assistant Vice President – IT (CISO) for the Office of the Vice President for Information Technology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rhode Island, a MS in Engineering Electrical from Stevens Institute of Technology, and a Ph. D. in Information Assurance and Security from The University of Fairfax. He has over 44 years of IT management and security experience recently retiring from Dynetics, Inc. in Huntsville as Director – Network Security and previously retiring from BellSouth as Computer Assets Protection Manager. He has spoken on numerous IT security topics at national seminars, meetings, training sessions, etc. including SANS, CSI, NetSec, ATMA, Murray State University, ASIS, and others. He is an Adjunct at the University of Alabama in Huntsville instructing in the Masters of Science in Information Assurance and Security and the Graduate Certificate in Information Assurance and Security programs since 2006. He was instrumental in establishing both UAH graduate programs and the NSA designation as a Center of Academic Excellence. He currently holds multiple professional certifications (CISSP, CISM, CPP, CFE) and professional society memberships (Sr. Member IEEE, Sr. Member ISSA, CSI, and others). His work has been published in several professional publications and society proceedings.

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Aaron Lucius, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:23:36 +0000

B.S., Biochemistry and Biophysics, Oregon State University 1998; Ph.D., Molecular Biophysics, Washington University School of Medicine, 2003; Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX from 2003 – 2006.

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Kent Kerley, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:22:24 +0000

Kent R. Kerley is an Associate Professor and Director of the Criminal Justice Honors Program in the Department of Justice Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His primary research interests include corrections, religiosity, cyber-crime, and intimate partner violence. His research has appeared in top journals such as Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Justice Quarterly, Social Forces, and Social Problems. He has received funding for his research from the National Science Foundation, Google, and the Religious Research Association.

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Allen Johnston, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:19:59 +0000

Dr. Allen C. Johnston is an Assistant Professor in the School of Business at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He holds a BS from Louisiana State University in Electrical Engineering as well as an MSIS and PhD in Information Systems from Mississippi State University. His works can be found in such outlets as MIS Quarterly, European Journal of Information Systems, Communications of the ACM, Journal of Global Information Management, Journal of Organizational and End User Computing, Journal of Information Privacy and Security, and DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems. The primary focus of his research has been in the area of information assurance and computer security, with a specific concentration on the behavioral aspects of information security and privacy. He has also served as guest speaker and provided consultation services to numerous entities including Regions Financial Corporation, the Birmingham Chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants, Rotary, and the National Decision Sciences Institute.

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Eric Jack, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:18:28 +0000

Dr. Jack is an Associate Dean in the School of Business at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His research interests include operations strategy with special emphasis on flexibility, quality management, and supply chain management. His research has been published in Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Business Horizons, International Journal of Management Reviews, International Journal Of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Journal of Services Marketing, Quality Management Journal, Managing Service Quality, Management Research News, APICS-The Association for Operations Management and in a 1999 text: Quantitative Models for Supply Chain Management. His work experience includes 21 years as a US Air Force officer where his responsibilities at various international locations involved facility planning, design, construction, and maintenance. He is a member of APICS–The Association for Operations Management, Academy of Management (AOM), Decision Sciences Institute (DSI), and Production and Operations Management Society (POMS).

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Mike Jablonsky, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:16:27 +0000

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Xuan Huang, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 17:13:23 +0000

Dr. Xuan Huang is an Assistant Professor in the School of Business at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She holds a B.E. in Automatic Control from Tsinghua University, a M.Sc. in Statistics and a Ph.D. in Management Science from University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her past research focused on devising statistical methodologies to monitor process and product quality. Her research has led to several papers including one that appeared in the Journal of Quality Technology. In 2009, she received the Lloyd Nelson award by American Society for Quality, for a coauthored paper that has ‘the greatest immediate impact for practitioners.’ Besides her expertise in Statistical Quality Management, she takes a strong research interest in statistical modeling of financial data and quality management in health care.

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Jack Howard, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 17:11:27 +0000

Dr. Jack L. Howard is a Professor in the School of Business at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He holds a BS in Psychology and an MA and PhD in Labor and Employment Relations from the University of Illinois. His works can be found in such outlets as Academy of Management Review, Group and Organization Management, Human Relations, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Human Resource Management Review and Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal. The primary focus of his research has been in the area employee rights and workplace aggression. He has also served as guest speaker and provided consultation services to numerous entities including Children’s Hospital of Alabama, Farmer’s Insurance, Arbour Valley Management, Alabama Power and the US Bankruptcy Court.

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Ms. Joan Hicks

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 17:08:01 +0000

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Stephen Harville, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 17:04:11 +0000

Dr. Steven R. Harville is a Research Associate in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He earned a BS as well as a Ph.D. in Chemistry from UAB. He is the manager of the Mass Spec facilities in the Department of Chemistry at UAB. The primary focus of his work is the characterization of various molecules utilizing LCMS, GCMC, and MALDI-TOF-MS/MS.

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Ragib Hasan, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 17:02:55 +0000

Dr. Ragib Hasan is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. With a key focus on practical computer security problems, Dr. Hasan is the founder of the SECuRE and Trustworthy Computing Lab (SECRETLab) at UAB. He is also a member of the UAB Center for Information Assurance and Joint Forensics Research.

Dr. Hasan’s research interest falls in the general area of data security, with emphasis on trustworthy data history, provenance, and accountability for cloud computing, file systems, and databases. He is also interested in mobile malware, secure social networking, trustworthy location based services, and secure medical devices. Dr. Hasan is the designer of one of the very first graduate level courses on cloud computing security and privacy (http://bit.ly/uabcloudsec), which he has taught at JHU and UAB over the last few years.

Prior to joining UAB in Fall 2011, Dr. Hasan was an NSF/CRA Computing Innovation Fellow and Assistant Research Scientist at the Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in October, 2009, and December, 2005, respectively. Before that, he received a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering and graduated summa cum laude from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 2003. He is a recipient of the 2011 Google Faculty Research Award, 2009 NSF Computing Innovation Fellowship and the 2003 Chancellor Award and Gold Medal from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. Dr. Hasan is also an active member of the research community and has served in the program committees of many conferences and workshops and is serving as the student grant co-chair for ACM CCS 2012. He is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal on Internet and Distributed Computing Systems. Outside academia, Dr. Hasan is a long term Wikipedia contributor and evangelist, and a founding member of Wikimedia Bangladesh. He is also an administrator in both English and Bengali language wikipedias. His work in developing Wikipedia in Bengali language has been covered by BBC World service and Deutsche-Welle International Radio.

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John Grimes, J.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:59:53 +0000

Mr. Grimes is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the department and serves as Director of the Pre-Law Program. He is the former Head Coach of UAB’s nationally recognized and award winning Mock Trial team. Under his guidance, the team won a number of honors, including the American Mock Trial Association’s National Tournament in 2006.

Grimes also serves as an ex-officio member of the UAB Pre-Law Advisory Board, a group of 15 members of the Birmingham Bar who oversee the Pre-Law Program.

John teaches a number of undergraduate law and law-related courses, including cold case analysis, criminal procedure, trial advocacy, legal research and writing, and mediation.

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Chris Green

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:59:17 +0000

Biography for this member of The Center is forthcoming.

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David Graves, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:58:36 +0000

Dr. David E. Graves is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Graves has served as Chair of the Department of Chemistry since May, 2003. He holds a secondary faculty appointment in the UAB Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. Dr. Graves is a member of a number of Centers across the UAB campus including the Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Center for Nanoscale Materials and Biointegration, Center for Lung Health, Center for Biophysical Sciences and Engineering, Center for Structural Biology, and the Center for Information Assurance and Joint Forensics Research. Dr. Graves holds a Ph.D. degree from the UAB Department of Biochemistry and carried out postdoctoral work in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Rochester. He was at the University of Mississippi from 1984 to 2003 in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry before moving to the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Graves has served on both NIH and NSF Study Panels and was Chair of the NIH GGG-J study section from 2009 to 2011. The focus of Dr. Graves’ research is in the area of biophysical characterization of nucleic acids both as targets for anticancer and antiviral drugs as well as the role of small DNAs as TLR ligands in stimulating biological responses such as innate cellular immunity and cancer metastasis. In 2011, Dr. Graves along with research collaborators Kevin Harris, M.D. Ph.D. and Katri Selander, M.D. Ph.D. founded Blondin BioSciences, LLC, a biotech company focused on cancer diagnostics and treatment. Dr. Graves’ research can be found in such journals as Biochemistry, Molecular Cancer Research, Chem.. Biol. Drug Discovery, and Biophysical Chemistry.

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Gerald Glandon, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:57:45 +0000

Gerald L. Glandon, Ph.D. is Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Services Administration. He is currently the interim Program Director for the Health Informatics Program in the Department and Director of the Center for Health Services Continuing Education at UAB. Dr. Glandon has had a career in research, health administration education, academic administration and consulting. His primary research interests have been technology evaluation (especially information technology), the economics of aging, patient and physician satisfaction, and assessment of organizational performance. He has received numerous grants as principle investigator and co-principle investigator including funding from government and private organizations. He has published in such journals as JAMA, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, Medical Care, Hospital and Health Services Administration, and Health Services Research as well as numerous books and book chapters. In 2008, he published with others a major text in healthcare information management, Information Systems for Healthcare Management. Over the years, Dr. Glandon has kept his research and practice skills current by engaging in extensive consulting with academic health centers, external agencies and organizations. These activities have included process improvement, employee satisfaction assessment and reporting, litigation support, and nursing organization, quality and cost studies. He has also worked extensively in international health with engagements in Albania, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Yemen. He has both developed and delivered management education in these countries and provided health care strategic analysis to Ministries of Health and to individual hospitals. Prior to coming to UAB, he had been Program Director of the Department of Health Systems Management at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago. He started his career as a researcher with the American Medical Association and worked as a Senior Consultant, InterQual, Inc. and Director of Research, MediQual, Inc.

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Elizabeth Gardner, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:54:25 +0000

Dr. Elizabeth Gardner is an Assistant Professor of Forensic Chemistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Justice Sciences. She holds a PhD in Chemistry from Michigan State University and a BS in Chemistry from Pennsylvania State University. She then completed a post doctoral appointment at Argonne National Laboratory focused on the direct oxidation of benzene to phenol. Dr. Gardner has also worked at the NASA White Sands Test Facility on the interaction of fuel with Teflon gaskets as a factor in the failure of the deep space rockets on the Shuttle.

Her work has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, The Journal Forensic Sciences, Advanced Materials, Journal of Molecular Structure, and Applied Catalysis A: General and presented at annual meetings of the American Chemical Society, The American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and the Gulf Coast Conference.

She has served as a consultant for Dynatec Laboratories on chemical issues in quality control of biomedical equipment and as a forensic expert for Federal Defenders, Middle District, Montgomery Alabama. Dr. Gardner is currently working on the development of crime scene drug tests for commercialization.

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Amanda Dorsey, MSHI

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:52:59 +0000

Amanda Dorsey, MSHI is the Director and an instructor in the MSHI Program. She worked in a variety of healthcare settings for more than 12 years prior to joining UAB in 2006.

Amanda began her career at UAB Health Systems Information Services (HSIS) department and performed in a variety of roles including technical writer, business analyst, manager of strategic and regulatory planning and finally as the enterprise project manager for the health system’s HIPAA Project. In 2001, she joined Phoenix Health Systems in Gaithersburg, Maryland as a Senior Consultant. While at Phoenix, she worked as a project manager on both long and short-term engagements including system selections and implementations, contract negotiations, risk assessment and disaster recovery planning, organizational strategic planning and HIPAA preparedness and training. Most recently, she worked at Children’s Health System in Birmingham as a project manager on an Emergency Department Electronic Health Record (EHR).

Among her current responsibilities as the Assistant Director are maintaining the strategic direction of the program, marketing the program to a national audience, recruiting, retaining and advising students, recruiting faculty members, ensuring a suitable curriculum and managing the program’s internship program.

Amanda is a past President and Board Member of the Alabama Chapter of HIMSS, a member of HIMSS, AMIA, AHIMA, the MSHI Alumni Executive Committee, and a past member of the Board of Directors for UAB’s National Alumni Society.

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Dale Carpenter, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:51:37 +0000

Dale Carpenter has been with the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences since 1997. Prior to becoming a Deputy Director in 2007, he served as the Department’s Technical Director for the Chemical Test for Intoxication Program. Academically, Dale obtained a B.S. degree in Chemistry from West Virginia University (’83) and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of South Carolina (’90). He began his forensic career in 1988 when he joined the South Carolina Law Enforcement’s Toxicology Section. He left South Carolina in 1992 to become the Western Regional Toxicologist for Virginia’s Division of Forensic Science. Along the way Dale has taught in University settings, has participated as an inspector/assessor for accreditation programs, and has served on Virginia’s Scientific Advisory Committee & Forensic Science Board.

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Heith Copes, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:43:21 +0000

Heith Copes is an Associate Professor in the Department of Justice Science at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He hold a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Tennessee. His primary research interest is in understanding the criminal decision making process of offenders. His work has appeared in the top journals in the fields of criminology and sociology, including Justice Quarterly, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, British Journal of Criminology, and Social Problems. In addition, he has a forthcoming book with Northeastern University Press based on interview with federally convicted identity thieves.

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Darrell Burke, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:36:23 +0000

Darrell E. Burke is an associate professor, in the School of Health Professions, Department of Health Services Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He holds a doctorate in Health Services Organization and Research (VCU), a masters in Technical Systems Management (SUNY Stony Brook ) and a bachelors in Industrial Engineering (Auburn). His research is primarily focused on organizational strategy, measurement and governance surrounding health informatics technology (HIT). Published work can be located in Health Care Management Review, Journal of Healthcare Management, Journal of Health Information Management, Biomedical Informatics Insight, Journal of Medical System, Information Research, The Healthcare Manager , Journal of Healthcare Quality, Journal of Rural Health, and Nursing Economics. He serves on Executive Committee of the Academy of Management Healthcare Management Division and is also a member of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and the Institute of Industrial Engineering (IIE).

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Eta Berner, Ed.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:33:12 +0000

Eta S. Berner, Ed.D., teaches in the Master of Science in Health Informatics Program and is Director of the UAB Center for Health Informatics for Patient Safety/Quality. Her current research activities include evaluation of health informatics and health services interventions.

Dr. Berner is a Fellow of both the American College of Medical Informatics and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. She has published articles in leading journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Academic Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. She is the editor of a book entitled Clinical Decision Support Systems: Theory and Practice, now in its second edition.

She serves on several national external advisory committees related to Clinical Decision Support, has been a World Health Organization consultant, and has served in leadership positions at the national level in professional informatics and health professions educational organizations, most recently as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Dr. Berner is currently a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, the Journal of Healthcare Information Management, and the International Journal of Medical Informatics.

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Puri Bangalore, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:30:58 +0000

Dr. Purushotham Bangalore is an Associate Professor and Director of the Collaborative Computing Laboratory (CCL) in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). As Director of CCL, Dr. Bangalore undertakes research in the area of Grid Computing to support rapid grid-enablement of multidisciplinary applications and scheduling applications on the grid. He is also developing novel programming techniques to synthesize parallel programs for heterogeneous architectures such as the grid and next-generation High Performance Computing (HPC) platforms.

He has worked over two decades in several areas of HPC and grid computing including algorithms, object-oriented libraries, message-passing middleware, multidisciplinary applications, and integration systems. His areas of interest include scientific computing, scalable algorithms, performance evaluation and estimation, object oriented numerical libraries and middleware, computational portals, grid computing environments, parallel programming environments, and adaptive systems and applications.

He has published more than 50 peer reviewed articles and has served as program committee member for several conferences and workshops. He has also organized several workshops and short-courses on introduction to high performance computing and using the Message Passing Interface (MPI) as part of the Department of Defense (DOD) Programming Environments and Training (PET) program.

He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in Introduction to Object Oriented Programming, Fundamentals of Unix Operating System, Competitive Programming Techniques, Operating Systems, Parallel Computing, Distributed Computing, and Grid Computing.

Dr. Bangalore received a Ph.D. in Computational Engineering in May 2003 from Mississippi State University. He also has a M.S. degree in Computer Science (May 1995) from Mississippi State University and B.E. degree in Computer Science and Engineering (October 1991) from Bangalore University, India.

Purushotham V. Bangalore’s Computer Science Home Page: http://www.cis.uab.edu/puri/

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Cracking A $70 Million Case

Larry Owen — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 21:05:02 +0000

“But 18 mules remained at large in the United States. And after the FBI published a wanted poster of the students, Warner’s students began using what they’d learned in class to track the criminals.

‘So the students used the techniques we had taught them during investigating online crime [class] and began crawling Facebook pages and VKontakte, which is a Russian version similar to Facebook and were able to quickly identify profile pages of almost all of them, at-large mules,’ Warner said.

Warner’s students discovered one of the students-turned-mules had brazenly posted pictures of herself with a wad of hundred-dollar bills. Another had posted a picture of himself dressed in an ‘I <3 New York’ top, arms aloft, celebrating in a bar with his friends—some of whom turned out to be other money mules. And another was pictured standing next to the new car he has presumably just bought.

Students used the techniques we had taught them to quickly identify the at-large [money] mules.

Though all the mules—except one—were arrested, that does not necessarily mean the end of the money mules, says Gary Warner.

‘ZeuS infections are rampant still today. There are probably millions of computers in the United States that have active Zeus on their machines right now,’ Warner said.”

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John Sloan, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 19:23:00 +0000

Dr. John Sloan is Professor of Criminal Justice and Chair of the UAB Department of Justice Sciences. Since 2006, he has been PI or Co-PI on nearly $2M in extramural funding for IA-related research and development, including projects that enhanced UAB’s existing infrastructure for IA-related research and development, and examined Internet-based financial fraud. Sloan has also co-authored several IA-related technical reports on phishing.

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Anthony Skjellum, Ph.D.

Larry Owen — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 19:18:26 +0000

Dr. Anthony Skjellum is engaged in research in high performance computing, as well as in information assurance. Dating back to collaborative research at Mississippi State University with Drs. Ray Vaughn and Susan Bridges, Dr. Skjellum has pursued the use of high performance computing to enable information assurance. At UAB he has worked jointly with Dr. John Sloan and Mr. Gary Warner on obtaining DOJ funds for large-scale computing infrastructure, that has enabled the UAB Spam and Phish datamines. Dr. Skjellum has supervised the dissertation work of Dr. Bradley Wardman, who recently completed his dissertation work and is now employed in the IA field working for Paypal; Dr. Skjellum published with Dr. Wardman on work related to his disseration. Additionally, Skjellum was an active member of the PhD committee of Dr. Chun Wei, who worked on clustering of SPAM in order to correlate apparently unrelated spam ‘campaigns’ over periods of days and weeks. Dr. Skjellum is a co-author on a subset of Dr. Wei’s publication. Wei is now employed by Platform Computing, a subsidiary of IBM.

Dr. Skjellum’s work on massive storage arrays, integrated computation, and highly reliable storage (RAID extensions) supports information assurance in that it ties to the creation of robust cloud building blocks. In this regard, Skjellum is strongly tied to IA, since cloud computing modalities that involve placing cloud elements into untrusted provider spaces is part of ‘cloud democratization’ that he is studying in work with Dr. Purushotham Bangalore, also of UAB and a center member.

Furthermore, Dr. Skjellum is pursuing work with other scientists at Clemson and Sandia National Laboratories on peer-based file systems for exascale, where QoS, IA, and data reliability are joint concerns. In this work, Dr. Skjellum and his students are designing exascale architectures that can survive disruptions from hardware failures as well as potential attacks. Middleware for data movement is being studied also for more “fine-grain exascale” and security is a part of the design space here as well. Finally, explorations of the use of Erlang for HPC and reliable computing involving storage and computation are in a nascent stage of development.

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First Article Title

IT Admin — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 20:28:17 +0000

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Cyber Summit 2013

Horton — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:45:39 +0000

Cyber Summit 2013

UAB Center for Information Assurance and Joint Forensics Research

Sheraton Birmingham/BJCC Civic Center

Feb. 12-13, 2013

Event Overview

DAY 1 Tuesday, February 12, 2013

12:00 Noon Cyber Summit Kick-off Luncheon featuring Keynote Address by

Joe Sullivan, Chief Security Officer, Facebook

1: 30 – 4 p.m. Brief Presentations on the work of UAB’s Center for Information

Assurance and Joint Forensics Research featuring “Pillar” leads:

Gary Warner – CyberCrime

John Grimes – Intelligence Analytics

Elizabeth Gardner – Forensic Science

Allen Johnston – Information Assurance

Darrell Burke – Health Informatics

Sarah Parcak – Geospatial Informatics and Imagery

John Sloan – Workforce Development

Tony Skjellum – Commercialization & Closing Remarks

DAY 2 Wednesday, February 13, 2013

7:45 a.m. Breakfast

8:30 a.m. First Session of 3 Concurrent Breakouts (moderators)

Sec. 1a Health Information Technology Security: A Hospital Perspective (Burke)
Sec. 1b Defending your Network (Warner)
Sec. 1c Drugs of Abuse (Gardner)

10:15 a.m. Second Session of 3 Concurrent Breakouts (moderators)

Sec. 2a Cloud Security (Hasan)
Sec. 2b Insider Threats (Grimes/Johnston)
Sec. 2c Digital Forensics in Forensic Science (Linville)

12:00 Noon Lunch – Speaker: Nicholas Steen, Assistant to the Special Agent in Charge,

United States Secret Service

1:15 p.m. Third Session of 3 Concurrent Breakouts (moderators)

Sec. 3a Key Areas in Workforce Development (Sloan)
Sec. 3b Devices, Users and Security (Saxena)
Sec. 3c Social Media and Intel Analytics (Grimes/Johnston)

3:00 p.m. Closing Plenary – Tony Skjellum –“Partnership Toward a Regional

Cyber Center”

4:00 p.m. Informal Networking Opportunities / End of Event

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