Cyber warriors: research at N.C. A&T advance innovative methods for countering cyber threats.

• Author: Cassis, Nicole
• Position: RESEARCH NORTH CAROLINA: NORTH CAROLINA AGRICULTURAL AND TECHNICAL STATE UNIVERSITY

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While the emergence of "smart" products might be exciting, there's often a rush to market for these devices, creating the potential for a variety of security issues.

"Cyber security threats are not ever going to really go away," says Gerry Dozier, an expert in identity science and a professor at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro. "It's an arms race between the hackers and the cybersecurity workforce. A new system comes out and what we want to try to do is find all the vulnerabilities, discover all of the attacks that could be launched against it, and fix these vulnerabilities. In order to protect a system you have to know how people can get into the system."

For Dozier, chair of NC. A&T's computer-science department, one way to address cyber-security issues proactively is to emphasize secure software design and engineering.

With security threats becoming increasingly sophisticated, dangerous and multiplying across the globe, targeting individuals and companies alike, concern is mounting on whether cyber security measures can keep pace with the "Internet of things."

In the midst of the fears, Dozier offers an optimistic outlook and maintains that solutions to the concerns are being born and tested now in North Carolina.

Dozier oversees N.C. A&T's two major hubs for cybersecurity research--the Center for Cyber Defense (recognized by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security as a Center for Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education) which is directed by Dorothy Yuan, and the Center for Academic Studies in Identity Sciences (CASIS). A five-year, $8.93 million grant from the Army Research Laboratory led to the establishment of CASIS, the first National Intelligence Science and Technology Center of Academic Excellence in the United States.

While both of the university's cyber security centers focus on developing ways to protect one's cyber identity, the underpinning of cyber security, the interdisciplinary team of CASIS focuses on identity modeling, cyberidentity protection and privacy, and biometrics-based analytics and identification. CASIS is using a blend of identity science, data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning in an effort to solve cyber security problems.

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