Information Assurance
Research in the
College of Engineering
Information Assurance
Measures that protect and defend
information and information
systems by ensuring their
availability, integrity, authentication,
confidentiality, and non-repudiation.
Florida Institute of Technology
was designated a
Center for Academic Excellence in
Information Assurance Research
by the
National
Security Agency
The Harris Institute for
Assured Information serves as a
focal point for collaboration and
project support
COE Faculty Performing Research
in Information Assurance
– Richard Ford, Computer Science – Harris Institute
– Fredric Ham, Electrical and Computer Engineering
– Gerald Marin, Computer Science – Harris Institute
– William Allen, Computer Science – Harris Institute
– Ryan Stansifer, Computer Science
– Liam Mayron, Computer Science – Harris Institute
– Marius Silaghi, Computer Science
– Adjunct Faculty: Marco Carvalho, Ronda Henning
Adaptive Supervisory Control
and Data Acquisition
• Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy
– Enhanced Protection of Critical Infrastructure
– COE Participants:
• Drs. Ford, Allen, Ham, Stansifer
• Supporting 1 Ph.D. student and 2 M.S. students
– Publications:
• three conference papers accepted/presented to date
• two papers in preparation
– $470,000 in funding over two years (current)
Neurocomputing
and Interoception
• Funded by Harris Corporation
– Attempts to allow computers to engage in
interoceptive behaviors, inspired by the brain’s
“system of systems”
– COE Participants:
• Drs. Ford, Carvalho
• Supporting 1 M.S. student
– Publications:
• One paper accepted and presented to date
– $65,000 in funding over two semesters
Human Ground Truth
in Virtual Worlds
• Funded by Harris Corporation
– Create new collaborative environments that
leverage the power of Virtual Worlds
– COE Participants:
• Drs. Ford, Carvalho
• Supporting 3 students
– Publications:
• No publications to date – project has just started
– $150,000 in funding over one year (current)
Biologically-Inspired
Security Infrastructure
for Tactical Environments
• Research funded by the Army Research Lab
– Improving the Security of Mobile Networks
– COE Participants:
• Drs. Ford, Allen, Ham, Marin, one Postdoc Researcher
• Graduated 1 Ph.D. and 5 M.S. students
– Publications:
• twelve papers published on this work
– $2,785,300 in funding over 3 years (completed)
Assured Information
in SOA Environments
• Funded by Harris Corporation
– Developed a method for evaluating securitycentric testing tools for use in SOA environments
– COE Participants:
• Dr. Tilley
• Supported 1 Ph.D. student and 1 M.S. student
– Publications:
• three conference papers published on this work
– $150,000 in funding over one year
Harris Corporation Grants
• The Harris Corporation funded several recent
projects through the Harris Institute:
– Vulnerabilities in Graphics Systems - $125k
• Drs. Ford and Allen
– Brain-inspired computing for security -$65k
• Dr. Ford
– Collection of Malware Samples - $100k
• Drs. Allen and Ford and graduate students
– Metrics for Human Computer Interaction - $60k
• Dr. Ford and Dr. Bahr (Psychology)
Using Program Slicing in
Software Maintenance
• This seminal work by Dr. Keith Gallagher was
published in IEEE Transactions on Software
Engineering in 1991
– Program slicing helps in understanding foreign
code and in debugging, Dr. Gallagher extended
this idea to aid in software maintenance.
– This work had a significant impact on discovering
and correcting the Y2K problem and continues to
be widely used for software maintenance
– This paper has been cited over 600 times
Software Testing
• Information Assurance requires the ability to verify
that software is free from vulnerabilities and that it
functions as intended
• Dr. Cem Kaner has co-authored four books and
numerous articles and workshops on software
testing principals and practices, including:
– Cem Kaner, Jack Falk, & Hung Quoc Nguyen, Testing Computer Software,
2nd edition
– Cem Kaner, James Bach, & Bret Pettichord, Lessons Learned in Software
Testing
– Cem Kaner & David Pels, Bad Software: What To Do When Software Fails
Towards a Secure Software
Development Framework Based on
an Integrated Engineering Process
• Abdulaziz Alkussayer, PhD completed in 2011
– Developed a methodology for improving the
development of secure software
– Publications:
• one Journal article, five Conference papers to date
– Advisor: William Allen
– Abdulaziz is currently on the faculty of a University
in Saudi Arabia
Program Comprehension
Through Sonification
• Lewis Berman, PhD completed in 2011
– Developed a sonification (i.e., non-speech sound)
scheme to facilitate the understanding of software
which has been shown to be particularly useful for
analyzing dynamic program behaviors
– Publications:
• three Conference papers to date
– Advisor: Keith Gallagher
Migrating Software Testing to the Cloud
• Tauhida Parveen, PhD completed in 2010
– Developed a methodology for migrating software
testing to a cloud environment to improve
performance and lower costs
– Publications:
• two Journal articles, six Conference papers to date
– Advisor: Scott Tilley
– Tauhida is employed at a local security company
Automatic Design of Feistel Ciphers
Using Constraint Techniques
• Venkatesh Ramamoorthy, PhD completed in 2010
– Developed several improvements to existing
cryptographic techniques
– Publications:
• three Conference papers to date
– A patent has been applied for on this work
– Advisor: Marius Silaghi
– Venkatesh is employed at Array Networks, Inc.
Malicious Mobile Code Related
Experiments with an
Extensible Network Simulator
• Attila Ondi, PhD completed in 2007
– Developed a technique for simulating the spread
of malicious code with high fidelity to better
evaluate methods for defending against attacks
– Publications:
• two Journal articles, four Conference papers to date
– Advisor: Richard Ford
– Attila is employed at Securboration, Inc.
Masters Research in
Information Assurance
• Reputations for Security in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks,
Katherine Hoffman, M.S., 2011
• MANET Security and Antibodies, Stephen Dotson, M.S., 2011
– a biologically-inspired approach to protecting mobile networks
• Evaluating the Capabilities of SOA Testing Tools from a
Security Perspective, Nawwar Kabbani, M.S., 2010
• A Proactive Defense System for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks,
Eyosias Yoseph Imana, M.S., 2009
• A State-Machine-Based Attack Description Language for the
Evaluation of Intrusion Detection Systems, Samuel Oswald,
M.S, 2009
Masters Research in
Information Assurance
• Incrementally Learning Rules for Anomaly Detection, Denis
Petrusenko, M.S., 2009
• A Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) Simulator with Worm
Propagation, Matthew Reedy, M.S., 2009
• A Modular Framework for Next-Generation Testing and
Evaluation of Network Applications, Derek Pryor, M.S., 2009
• Discovering a Covert Channel between Virtual Machines
Sharing the Same Set of Hardware, James Stimers, M.S., 2008
• Changing the Modulus of Secret Sharing, Accessing Arrays of
Secrets and Incentive Mixnets, Timothy Atkinson, M.S., 2007
• The Hunt for Viral Processes, Christiana Ioannou, M.S., 2006