Teaching

Current Courses - Summer I 2008

Other Information

Research Interests

My research interests are focused on the fields of computer security and digital forensics. It is my belief that the ability to detect, defend against, and recover from a computer attack will become ever more important with the spread of pervasive systems. A lot of work has been done in the past concerning the detection of digital intruders or attacks. However, almost all of this work focuses detection after the fact. Instead, my research focuses on theoretical methods and approaches for detecting an attack before it has had a chance to fully manifest itself. In addition, I have worked to apply these theories to building real-world components and systems.

I am also interested in the related field of small resource constrained sensors. Arrays of such sensors can be used to understand aspects of the environments in which they are placed. The computing power of the individual sensor will be limited, but the amount of data that they will be collecting will likely be quite large and possibly of a sensitive nature. Given this, such sensors require intelligent algorithms that allow the efficient processing of data in a distributed fashion and secure data communication.

Proactive forensics is the use of statistical methods in an on-line fashion to identify user behavior that is out of the ordinary. This information can be used to predict the likelihood that an attack is brewing. Designing the ideal system that automatically captures behavioral data is no easy task because the system's methods must be provably accurate.

I have also researched modeling the propagation of viruses over networks. My colleagues and I implemented a small scale version of a scalable network simulator, simulated an internet-like network structure and created simulation classes that allowed enough variation to emulate several classical internet worms. We then ran basic simulations that told us how worms propagate and what measures might be taken to defend a network against them.

In addition, I have been interested in how to turn theory into practice in the case of automated threat detection and proactive forensics systems. This research has happened in two main phases. The first phase involves the study of currently accepted models and system structures that support the creation and implementation of digital investigations. From this I hope to draw conclusions about the best way to integrate the theories surrounding proactive forensics and automated digital forensics systems. The second phase is to begin development on a platform based prototype of such an automated system.

Also, I am researching statistical analysis by constrained devices. This research is applicable to situations including proactive forensics systems, sensor networks and the like. In particular, my current focus is on how best to perform distribution change point analysis on binary streams.

In the future, I hope to expand upon my research in digital security and forensics. Specifically, future research will focus on improved techniques for processing statistical data concerning computer usage. Also, I will be looking into improved techniques for processing bit streams in order to efficiently detect changes in statistical distributions.

Also, it is my desire to do research that enables and supports entrepreneurial transfer. Finding new and better ways to provide support for promising research has become an increasingly important and difficult task. In the past, my graduate advisor and I have been in close negotiations with an entrepreneur concerning beginning a business that would be supported by and support our research efforts within academia. I feel that such entrepreneurial transfer offers the best possibility for self-sustaining research.

In my experience, learning and research go hand in hand as do teaching and research. I have been blessed to work with and be mentored by a number of talented and energetic researchers and I have benefited from these experiences. I look forward to working with these and other such researchers in the future.