Cyber Florida

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So far Cyber Florida has created 83 blog entries.

Cybercrime Investigation for Florida Law Enforcement

Cyber Florida invites state and local law enforcement personnel across the Sunshine State to attend this free, one-day workshop presenting the latest insights, methodologies, and updates related to cybercrime. Funded by a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, this event offers an impressive lineup of experts in various domains of cyber investigations, providing a valuable knowledge-sharing platform for officers and officials keen on enhancing their investigative capabilities in an increasingly digital world.

Program Agenda

9:00 - 10:00 am: Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)

Dr. Jordan Howell dives into the world of publicly available data and how it can be harnessed to aid in cyber investigations. Dr. Howell will discuss key tools, techniques, and resources available in the realm of OSINT.

10:15 - 11:15 am: Cybercrime Legal Update

Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Schiller will provide attendees with the latest updates in the legal landscape surrounding cybercrime, providing a clearer picture of the challenges and opportunities facing law enforcement.

11:45 am - 12:45 pm: Current Forensics Challenges

In this session, veteran criminal investigator Chris Gastardi will address the ongoing challenges forensic experts face in digital investigations and cutting-edge techniques to overcome them.

12:45 - 1:45 pm: Networking Lunch (lunch provided, value less than $50)

1:45 - 2:45 pm: Cryptocurrency Investigations and the Blockchain

Cryptocurrencies present unique challenges in the world of cyber investigations. Larry Nielson, CFE, CTCE, CRC, Financial Crimes Detective at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, will delve deep into the world of blockchain and shed light on techniques to trace, track, and investigate cryptocurrency-related crimes.

3:00 - 3:45 pm: Dark Web Investigations

The Dark Web remains a mystery to many. Jeff Burke, special agent with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, will uncover the layers of the Dark Web, providing insights into how to navigate, investigate, and track criminal activities on this hidden part of the internet.

4:00 - 5:00 pm: Cyber Investigations

Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Chuck Esposito gives a comprehensive look into the realm of cyber investigations, discussing everything from current threats to mitigation strategies.

Cybercrime Investigation for Florida Law Enforcement2023-11-06T09:50:52-05:00

Network Sorcery: The Hunt

In today's world, almost all activities take place over the internet, such as banking, homework assignments, television programs, phone conversations, and more. While the internet has positively impacted the way we work, learn, and communicate, it is also used by those with malicious intentions.

During this hands-on webinar, experts from Stamus Networks will demonstrate what bad actors do, how malware operates, and how to detect and catch these intrusions. We will also walk through the basic principles of network threat hunting and will demonstrate how to uncover ransomware and Advanced Persistent Threats.

Attendees will learn how to:
  • Use Suricata as a monitoring tool
  • Chase APTs and malware actors, known and unknown
  • Hunt and investigate using open-source tools
  • Recognize types of malware, behaviors, and current trends
Agenda:
  • Introduction
  • Speaker introduction
  • Experience/feedback in malware IR/hunting/investigations
  • Goal of Network Forensics – purpose and how it’s collected & analyzed
  • Overview of Suricata as a monitoring tool
  • Pyramid of pain (chasing APTs and malware actors, knowns and unknowns)
  • Overview of Ransomware (types of malware, behaviors, current trends)
  • Case-study: walk through an example of APT case
  • Hunting and investigation: Easiest way to spin up a complete network monitoring distro
  • with Suricata for Hunting, teaching and investigations comprised of only open-source tools (docker-based, runs on Linux: Ubuntu/Debian etc)
  • Case-study (hands-on): live example of Ransomware malware network traffic
  • Free and OSS Resources for malware training , data and investigations
  • Q/A
Network Sorcery: The Hunt2023-10-02T14:46:17-04:00

Operation K12 Cybersecurity Careers Webinar

Join us for an engaging discussion on Cybersecurity Careers with Stacey Hatola, VP of Information Security and Privacy at Graham Holdings Company. Stacey Halota joined Graham Holdings Company (then The Washington Post Company) in 2003. She leads the development and implementation of information security and privacy programs, including Sarbanes Oxley, privacy law, Payment Card Industry compliance, and other data protection efforts. She has more than 25 years of experience in the information technology, security, and privacy field. Before joining Graham Holdings, she served as the federal government and southeast region leader of Guardent (now part of Verisign), a security and privacy consulting and managed security services company. Before Guardent, she worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Technology Risk Services consulting practice.

Ms. Halota serves on the strategic advisory boards of Y/L Ventures, Cytrio, the Cloud Security Alliance CxO Trust, and Piiano; the Board of Directors of the National Technology Security Coalition (NTSC); and is a Cyversity Ambassador. She is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP).

Operation K12 Cybersecurity Careers Webinar2023-09-15T16:25:23-04:00

Florida Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity Intelligence Assessment

This comprehensive assessment of the chief cybersecurity threats facing Florida’s critical infrastructure organizations was prepared for Cyber Florida by expert faculty from the University of South Florida’s School of Information.

Florida Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity Intelligence Assessment2024-07-31T13:20:46-04:00

Dr. Nasir Ghani

Dr. Nasir Ghani is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Program Director of the College of Engineering MS in Cybersecurity. He is also an Academic Director for Research at Cyber Florida, a state-funded center focusing on cybersecurity research, education, and outreach. Earlier, he was also the Associate Chair of the ECE Department at the University of New Mexico (UNM). He has also held various research and development positions at several large corporations (including Nokia, IBM, and Motorola) and some startups. His  research interests include cybersecurity, cyberinfrastructure design, disaster recovery, and online education. His research has been supported by the NSF, DoD, DoE, Qatar Foundation, and several state and industry partners. He also received the NSF CAREER Award in 2005.

Dr. Ghani has served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Communication Letters, IEEE Systems, and the IEEE/OSA Journal of Optical and Communications & Networking. In addition, he has guest-edited special issues of IEEE Network and IEEE Communications Magazine and chaired large symposia events for IEEE Globecom, IEEE ICC, IEEE ICCCN, and IEEE Infocom. He was also chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on High-Speed Networking (TCHSN) from 2007-2010. He received a B.Sc. from the University of Waterloo, an M.S. from McMaster University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo.

Dr. Nasir Ghani2023-06-05T17:29:10-04:00

Dr. Nathan Fisk

Dr. Nathan Fisk, PhD, is the Academic Director for Outreach at Cyber Florida and an Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity Education at the USF College of Education.

Dr. Fisk received his PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is among the inaugural group of five Fulbright Cybersecurity Scholars, having been invited to the London School of Economics in Fall 2016 to research family discourses of youth privacy online. Currently, he is exploring social scientific approaches to producing and disseminating technical knowledge within informal cybersecurity community groups to develop innovative forms of cybersecurity education.

Dr. Fisk’s third book, “Framing Internet Safety,” was published by MIT Press in December 2016. Fisk currently serves on national working groups for the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) and the Higher Education Information Security Council (HEISC). Additionally, Dr. Fisk is a USF faculty affiliate with the Department of Women and Gender Studies and a research associate with the Florida Center for Instructional Technology (FCIT).

Dr. Nathan Fisk2023-06-05T17:19:42-04:00

Dr. Manish Agrawal

Manish Agrawal, PhD, is the Academic Director for Education at Cyber Florida and a professor in (and former chair of) the University of South Florida’s School of Information Systems and Management. He teaches information assurance, business data communications, and applications development courses.

An expert in cybersecurity, social media analytics, software quality, offshoring, and outsourcing, his research interests include extreme event response, social media analytics, decision fusion, and software quality. He is an avid researcher, and his work has been published in numerous academic journals, including Management Science, MIS Quarterly, the INFORMS Journal on Computing, the Journal of Management Information Systems, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Decision Support Systems, and the Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce. His research and teaching have been funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum and Sun Microsystems. Before joining academia, Agrawal was a member of the Indian Police Service.

Agrawal earned a PhD in information systems at SUNY Buffalo and studied at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India.

TEACHING

  • ISM 6323/4323 – Information Security and Risk Management
  • ISM 4220 – Business Data Communications
  • ISM 6056 – Web Application Development
  • ISM 7911 – Seminar on Technical IT Research

RECENT RESEARCH

  • “Effects of Project Owner’s Title on the Financial Impacts of IT Systems Integration
    Outsourcing Projects,” (2016), Shankar Prawesh, Manish Agrawal and Kaushal Chari,
    Information Systems Management, 33(3) pg. 199-211.
  • “A Process Model for Information Retrieval Context Learning and Knowledge
    Discovery,” (2015), H Hyman, T Sincich, R Will, M Agrawal, B Padmanabhan, W Fridy Iii,
    Artificial Intelligence and Law 23 (2), 103-132.
  • “Information Processing Under Stress: A Study of Mumbai First Responders,” (2014), Rajarshi
    Chakraborty, Manish Agrawal and H. Raghav Rao, Indian Institute of Management
    (Bangalore) Management Review, 26(2), pp 91-104.
  • “Message Diffusion Through Social Network Service: The Case of Rumor and Non
    Rumor Related Tweets During Boston Bombing 2013,” (2015), Jake Lee, Manish Agrawal,
    and H. R. Rao, Information Systems Frontiers, 17(5), pp. 997-1005
  • “Competition in Mediation Services: Modeling the Role of Expertise, Satisfaction and
    Switching Costs,” (2013), Manish Agrawal, Govind Hariharan, H. R. Rao and R. Kishore,
    Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 23(3), pp 169-199

GRANTS

  • 2016–18: Co-PI on NSF grant #IIS1651475, $199,999, “EAGER: An Investigation of the Propagation of Error-Resistant and Error-prone Messages over Large-Scale Information Networks,” with H.R. Rao, Varun Chandola and Rohit Valecha (Project report)
  • 2014–18: Co-PI on NSF grant #1043919, $299,468, “Developing Open Authentic Case Studies for an MS in Cybersecurity Capstone Course,” with Grandon Gill, Randy Borum, and Robert Gardner

SERVICE

  • Department chair, ISDS, 2016-present
  • Conference co-chair, IFIP Dewald Roode Workshop, 2017
  • Member, WITS Program Committee, 2016
  • Member, USF General Education Council, 2011–13
  • Muma College of Business representative, USF Faculty Senate, 2009–12
  • Member, Faculty Advisory Committee, Center for India Studies, USF, 2010-present
Dr. Manish Agrawal2023-06-05T17:31:47-04:00

Cyber Florida Announces Start-Up Seed Fund Pilot Program

Cyber Florida today announced the Seed Fund Pilot Program launch, a new initiative to support Florida-based researchers and emerging entrepreneurs in commercializing their cybersecurity technical innovations, launching new businesses, and helping secure critical infrastructure.

Modeled after the federal Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) Phase I programs, the Seed Fund Pilot is intended to complement and amplify other statewide efforts to encourage innovation, such as the Florida High-Tech Corridor, I-Corps, and incubators and accelerators around the state, by filling in the missing pieces of seed funding and mentoring for commercialization.

The effort will focus on mentoring new entrepreneurs to help them establish businesses centered on cybersecurity technical solutions and services. The program will advance Cyber Florida’s legislative mission by facilitating research sharing between businesses and universities, attracting cybersecurity companies to Florida, and helping innovative cybersecurity businesses to emerge in Florida.

During the inaugural year, Cyber Florida will evaluate applications and grant approximately $240,000 in total seed funding to be distributed among four emerging companies that are registered and operating in Florida. Like SBIR programs, Cyber Florida will take no equity or realize any return from these investments. To learn more about this new program and download the application packet, please visit https://cyberflorida.org/seedfund.

Cyber Florida Announces Start-Up Seed Fund Pilot Program2024-07-26T15:54:50-04:00

Defense & Innovation: A Cybercrime Symposium

We are delighted to announce InfraGard Florida – Tampa Bay Area Members Alliance as our symposium co-sponsor!

Join us for a two-day symposium hosted by Cyber Florida in partnership with the University of South Florida and InfraGard to bring together academic researchers, industry practitioners, and law enforcement professionals to examine the latest intelligence on emerging cybercrime threats. The symposium will serve as a platform for connecting, information-sharing, and problem-solving as these three groups—practitioners, researchers, and law enforcement—work together to mitigate the constantly evolving cyber threat landscape. Agenda coming soon!

Symposium Agenda

Subject to change without notice.

8:00 AM Check-In and Breakfast
9:00 AM Welcome Remarks

George Burruss, PhD, Professor and Associate Chair, University of South Florida Department of Criminology
Ernie Ferraresso, Director, Cyber Florida

9:15 AM Keynote Address: The Global Cyber Threat

General (Ret.) Frank McKenzie, Executive Director, Cyber Florida

10:00 AM Call to Arms: A Plan for Protecting Critical Infrastructure in the United States i.e. How to Eat an Elephant

Michael W. Ritchie, President InfraGard – Tampa Bay Members Alliance and Principal, Germinal: Consulting Services & Custom Product Development

10:45 AM Break
11:00 AM The Fraud Triangle and Cryptocurrency: Unpacking the Relationship between Cryptocurrency and Financially Motivated Cybercrimes

Thomas Dearden, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology, Virginia Tech

11:45 AM State of Cybersecurity from Those Tasked with Defending It

Nick Biasini, Head of Outreach, Cisco Talos

12:30 PM Networking Lunch & Student Poster Session
1:30 PM The Cyberwar between Russia & Ukraine

LTC ret. Zbigniew Nowak, PhD, and Katarzyna Chałubińska-Jentkiewicz, PhD; Academic Center for Cybersecurity Policy, War Studies University, Poland; Dr. Ryszard Szpyra, Professor of social sciences, head of doctoral studies at the National Defense University; and Dr. Oleg Gushchyn, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv,  Military Institute.

2:15 AM Employing Zero Trust Architecture for Electric Utilities

Steve Lindsay, Director, Critical Infrastructure Initiatives, XTec

3:00 PM Break
3:15 PM Thick as Thieves: How Criminal Relationships Form on the Darknet

Samantha Tucker, PhD, Cyber Operations Analyst, MITRE

4:00 PM Hello, You’ve Been Hacked: A Study of Victim Notification Preferences

Caitlyn Muniz, PhD, Assistant Professor, The University of Texas at El Paso

9:00 AM Welcome to Day 2

George Burruss, PhD, Professor and Associate Chair, University of South Florida Department of Criminology

9:15 AM Darknet Ecosystem: Selling Stolen Identities Online

C. Jordan Howell, PhD, and George Burruss, PhD, University of South Florida

10:00 AM How basic is Hackers’ Playbook? Studying Attacks on our RDP Honeypots

Andréanne Bergeron, Ph.D, Cybersecurity Researcher / Chercheure en cybersécurité, GoSecure

10:45 AM Break
11:00 AM The Web: A Doubled-Edged Sword

Amin Kharraz, PhD, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Systems Security Lab at Florida International University

11:45 AM ISP Spamming: Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs)

Mark Clancy, Founder Cyber Risk Research and former CISO of Sprint and DTCC, and Khalid Akanbi, Cyber Security Analyst

12:30 PM Networking Lunch & Student Poster Sessions
1:30 PM Current Trends in Fraud

Supervisory Special Agent Keith Givens, Federal Bureau of Investigation

2:15 PM Leveraging “Insurability”

Joey Hernandez CISM, CISSP, InfraGard Financial Services Sector Chief and Team Lead for Dell/SecureWorks North American Proactive Services

3:00 PM Break
3:15 PM New Reputation-Based Mining Paradigm: Incentivizing Blockchain Miners to Avoid Dishonest Mining Strategies

Mehrdad Nojoumian, Associate Professor, Director of the Privacy, Security & Trust in Autonomy Lab, Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Florida Atlantic University

4:00 PM Machine Learning and Forensic Analysis of Photo Thumbnails

Shahrzad Sayyafzadeh, Florida A&M University

Location & Parking

Venue:

University of South Florida – Tampa
Marshall Student Center Grand Ballroom (2nd floor)
4103 USF Cedar Cir, Tampa, FL 33620

Parking:

After obtaining a parking pass from the Campus Information Center off of Leroy Collins Blvd (instructions provided via email to registrants), attendees should proceed to the Crescent Hill Parking Facility off of USF Cedar Dr., then walk to the Marshall Student Center. Guests with Disabled Person Parking Permits will find the closest disabled person parking spaces in Lot 3A:E.

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Defense & Innovation: A Cybercrime Symposium2023-04-18T14:39:29-04:00

CONTACT US

Cyber Florida at USF
4202 E. Fowler Avenue, ISA7020
Tampa, FL 33620

Office meetings by appointment only

PRIVACY POLICY

Copyright 2024 The Florida Center for Cybersecurity at the University of South Florida. Information on this website is made available for general educational purposes only and should not be used in lieu of obtaining competent legal advice from a licensed attorney or cybersecurity professional with sufficient expertise necessary to address your specific needs. Use of this website does not create any special or fiduciary relationship between you and the Florida Center for Cybersecurity or the University of South Florida.