NSA funds 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock cybersecurity lab project
Dr. Mengjun Xie. Photo by Lonnie Timmons III/糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Communications.
A University of Arkansas at Little Rock researcher has received funding from the U.S. (NSA) to improve cybersecurity skills for students and the general population.
Dr. Mengjun Xie, 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock associate professor of computer science, is working to build a virtual cybersecurity lab. He recently received an $85,912 addition to his original NSA grant, bringing the total NSA funding for the project to $124,527.
The cybersecurity lab project, 鈥淣etworking and Network Security in the Cloud (NetSiC),鈥� will address issues related to cloud-based computing environments and help students practice networking and cyber defense skills.
鈥淭his project is unique because it allows students to conduct networking and security practices in a computing cloud they choose, and the developed software will be free to use,鈥� Xie said. 鈥淲hile other cloud-based cybersecurity labs are available, they either do not provide enough flexibility or require users to pay in order to use their platform.鈥�
The virtual lab will incorporate a group of learning modules that can help undergraduate students conduct cloud-networking experiments. A second group of modules will allow students to conduct network protection and defense experiments.
When the project is completed, Xie will deliver the 12 lab modules to the NSA, where they will become part of a cybersecurity curriculum that will be accessible to the public.
Xie has an extensive body of published research and is known for his work in cybersecurity, network systems, data analytics, and social network analysis in bioinformatics. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the College of William and Mary.
Xie will develop the NetSiC lab in the NEXUS (Networked and Complex Systems Security Research) Lab at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock. 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock is among the institutions receiving the designation. The joint program of the NSA and the Department of Homeland Security is designed to reduce information infrastructure vulnerability through higher education and research.
By creating聽the NetSiC lab, Xie and his team aim to increase students鈥� knowledge of virtual networks and their ability to successfully protect and defend cloud networks.
This project is sponsored by the National Security Agency under Grant Number H98230-17-1-0273. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Security Agency.
