- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock takes fourth place in cybersecurity competition

Ajani Oyindamola — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 14:11:11 +0000

A team of computer science majors from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock finished fourth out of 21 teams during the cybersecurity competition Jan. 26-28 at Fort Smith. The Cyber Security Club team members include Malik El-Amin, a senior from North Little Rock; Aaron Mays, a sophomore from Scotland; David Stack, a sophomore from Little Rock; and Carter Williams, a freshman from Dover. The team was sponsored by the Department of Computer Science. “I personally had a great time and love these competitions not only because the puzzles are fun to break, but the networking that takes place at these events is a great opportunity for us to meet potential employers and industry professionals,” Stack said. “Everyone is super friendly and willing to teach you new skills if you willing to learn.” The competition featured a “capture the flag” challenge, a hacking tournament and information security competition where teams race to solve cyber puzzles to acquire digital flags, usually a predefined file or string of texts. The challenges are divided by category with puzzles of increasing difficulty ranging from networking, coding, cryptography, web application hacking, brainteasers, and real-life immersive geo-located puzzles in the downtown area. “The harder the problem, the more points you receive,” Mays said. “You’re required to put multiple things in practice, such as computer forensics, cryptography, steganography, reverse engineering, social engineering, and programming. I learned a lot of new things, one of those being how to crack a Wi-Fi password.” In addition to learning valuable new skills, the team even earned an honorable mention and special trophy for hacking into the Facebook and Gmail accounts the game administrators created for the competition and holding the accounts ransom for extra points. “This may seem bad, but the point to these competitions is to utterly defeat anything within the competition’s scope,” Stack said. “The only rules are don’t hack the other teams and don’t hack the scoreboard. We got major bonus points for hacking the game administrators.” The Cyber Security Club meets every Friday at 5:30 p.m. in the Engineering and Information Technology Building Room 543. For more information, contact the club’s advisor, Dr. Mengjun Xie, at mxxie@ualr.edu.

Doctoral student develops cybersecurity web application

Jenny Lambert — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 08:35:34 +0000

Yanyan Li, a fifth-year doctoral student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, recently co-developed an easy-to-use cybersecurity education tool designed to leverage cloud resources for instructors and provide an exceptional user lab experience for students. For nearly a year, Li worked alongside Dung Nguyen, a graduate student at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, and under the supervision of his adviser, Dr. Mengjun Xie, to compose “EZSetup: A Novel Tool for Cybersecurity Practices Utilizing Cloud Resources.” After finalizing the piece, Li was granted the opportunity to present the paper during the 18th annual Conference on Information Technology Education in Rochester, New York. Throughout the piece, which is now among the top 10 most downloaded articles from the conference, Li discussed innovations in the cybersecurity field that he believed could be improved, and in turn, introduced a self-generated solution. “Currently, cybersecurity education relies heavily on hands-on security practices, as this method has been shown effective in strengthening students’ understanding of security knowledge,” Li said. “To reduce students’ workloads and meanwhile provide a more focused lab experience, many platforms and tools have been developed; however, they either have a complex deployment process, or are not scalable.” According to Li, the newly popular virtual machine-based approach was among those platforms created to provide a solution. Although these tools and systems reduce the cost of environment setup and scenario creation, they don’t support a large number of students and lack strong, user-friendly support for customization. Throughout his research, Li also noted that these cloud computing systems add another dimension to cybersecurity practices, but most are built using a specific cloud technology and fail to expose an interface to their users for customization.

The birth of EZSetup

To address these issues, Li developed EZSetup, which serves as a system that supports easy, automatic, scalable and customizable deployments of networks and network security labs. “EZSetup is distinct from other cloud-based solutions because it does not rely on a particular type of cloud platform or technology,” Li wrote. “It is able to interact with multiple clouds while simultaneously representing virtual environments for cybersecurity practice.” Li’s virtual platform can also support a large number of users and allow them to create customizable lab scenarios. EZSetup provides a drag-and-drop building canvas along with personalized options for configuring virtual machine situations. To test the performance of EZSetup, Li recruited nine volunteers to use the system to create a security lab as lab managers and complete a lab exercise as lab users. “The experimental results were quite positive and indicated that EZSetup could be applicable to other computer science and engineering subjects,” Li stated. Li also utilized EZSetup in a computer forensics course he taught this semester. He instructed his students to complete a Linux Forensics lab using the system, in which they were to launch a real intrusion from an attacker machine to a victim machine, followed by a forensic analysis on the compromised device. “As I gain more knowledge in the security world, I believe myself and other professionals need to train students and employees and help them practice in this field so they can better prepare for cyber attacks,” Li said. For more information, contact Li at yxli5@ualr.edu, or to view his article, visit the .

NSA funds ��Vlog��ý Little Rock cybersecurity lab project

Ajani Oyindamola — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 14:34:56 +0000

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, ��Vlog��ý 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, “Networking and Network Security in the Cloud (NetSiC),” will address issues related to cloud-based computing environments and help students practice networking and cyber defense skills. “This 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,” Xie said. “While 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.” 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 ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. ��Vlog��ý 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 the NetSiC lab, Xie and his team aim to increase students’ 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.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock announces college-level Faculty Excellence Award winners

Ajani Oyindamola — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 14:31:58 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will honor 14 of its top faculty members during the Faculty Excellence Awards Thursday, April 13. “Faculty excellence winners underscore ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s commitment to quality instruction, innovative research, and service to the community. Our faculty’s dedication to these fundamental principles continue to be the bedrock of our institution,” said Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Dr. Deborah Baldwin. A panel of external judges will review the achievements of the college-level winners and select the university-wide winners in the categories of teaching, research, and public service. The three university-wide winners, who will each receive a cash prize of $5,000, will be announced during the Faculty Excellence Awards ceremony at 5:30 p.m. April 13 in the Engineering and Information Technology Building Auditorium on the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock campus. A reception will follow in the Engineering and Information Technology Building lobby. Since 1989, when the first award was given, the event has provided a way to recognize the great work of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty and is made possible through the valued contributions of the Office of the Chancellor, the Office of the Provost, and the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Chancellor’s Circle. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Office of the Provost at 501.569.3204. The following is a list of college-level winners:

Public Service

��Allison Holland, director of the University Writing Center and senior instructor of rhetoric and writing, College of Social Sciences and Communications
��Cynthia Johnson, advanced instructor of accounting, College of Business
��Laura Barrio-Vilar, assistant professor of English, College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences
��Michael DeAngelis, assistant professor of earth sciences, George W. Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology
��Suzanne Penn, associate professor of clinical law, William H. Bowen School of Law

Research/Creative Endeavors

��Mengjun Xie, associate professor of computer science, George W. Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology
��Michael Flannery, professor of law, William H. Bowen School of Law
��Tansel Karabacak, associate professor of physics and astronomy, College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences

Teaching

��J. Lyn Entrikin, professor of law, William H. Bowen School of Law
��John Talburt, professor of information science and Acxiom Chair of Information Quality, George W. Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology
��Kathryn King, assistant professor of anthropology, College of Communication and Social Sciences
��Linda Holzer, professor of music, College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences
��Linda Stauffer, associate professor of interpreter education and program coordinator of the Interpreter Education Program, College of Education and Health Professions
��Otmar Varela, associate professor of management, College of Business

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock takes fourth place in cybersecurity competition