Training and Teaching Students and IT Professionals on High-throughput Networking and Cybersecurity Using a Private Cloud
- Conference
- Location
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Virtual On line
- Publication Date
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June 22, 2020
- Start Date
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June 22, 2020
- End Date
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June 26, 2021
- Conference Session
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Computing and Information Technology Division Technical Session 8
- Tagged Division
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Computing and Information Technology
- Tagged Topic
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Diversity
- Page Count
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20
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--35399
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/35399
- Download Count
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597
Paper Authors
Jorge Crichigno University of South Carolina
Jorge Crichigno is an Associate Professor in the Department of Integrated Information Technology (IIT), College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), at the University of South Carolina (USC). Dr. Crichigno’s research focuses on practical implementation of high-speed networks and network security, custom protocol development using P4 switches, experimental evaluation of congestion control algorithms, and scalable flow-based intrusion detection systems. He is the Principal Investigator of multiple research initiatives involving high-speed and next-generation networks. Dr. Crichigno has served as a reviewer and a TPC member of journals and conferences, such as the IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, IEEE Access, IEEE Globecom, and others. He has also served as a panelist for the National Science Foundation, for programs related to advanced cyberinfrastructure and undergraduate and graduate education. He is an ABET Evaluator representing the IEEE.
Elias Bou-Harb
University of Texas at San Antonio
orcid.org/0000-0001-8040-4635
Dr. Elias Bou-Harb is currently the Associate Director of the Cyber Center For Security and Analytics at UTSA, where he leads, co-directs and co-organizes university-wide innovative cyber security research, development and training initiatives. He is also an Associate Professor at the department of Information Systems and Cyber Security specializing in operational cyber security and data science as applicable to national security challenges. Previously, he was a senior research scientist at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) where he contributed to federally-funded projects related to critical infrastructure security and worked closely with the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). He is also a permanent research scientist at the National Cyber Forensic and Training Alliance (NCFTA) of Canada; an international organization which focuses on the investigation of cyber-crimes impacting citizens and businesses. Dr. Bou-Harb holds a Ph.D. degree in computer science from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, which was executed in collaboration with Public Safety Canada, Industry Canada and NCFTA Canada. His research and development activities and interests focus on operational cyber security, attacks’ detection and characterization, malware investigation, cyber security for critical infrastructure and big data analytics. Dr. Bou-Harb has authored more than 80 refereed publications in leading security and data science venues, has acquired state and federal cyber security research grants valued at more than $4M, and is the recipient of 5 best research paper awards, including the prestigious ACM’s best digital forensics research paper.
Elie Kfoury University of South Carolina
Elie Kfoury is a second-year PhD student in computer science at the University of South Carolina, USA. He is a member of the CyberInfrastructure Lab (CI Lab), where he developed training materials for virtual labs on high-speed networks (TCP congestion control, WAN, performance measuring, buffer sizing), cybersecurity, and routing protocols. He previously worked as a research and teaching assistant in the computer science and ICT departments at the American University of Science and Technology in Beirut. His research focuses on telecommunications, network security, blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), and programmable data plane switches.
Jose Gomez University of South Carolina
Jose Gomez is a Computer Engineering PhD student at the University of South Carolina in the United States of America. For the last three years, he worked as a researcher and teaching assistant in the School of Engineering at the Catholic University in Asuncion.
Antonio Mangino University of Texas at San Antonio
Antonio Mangino is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Information Systems and Cyber Security at The University of Texas at San Antonio. He received his B.S. in Computer Science from Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in 2019. As a member of the Cyber Threat Intelligence Laboratory at Florida Atlantic University, Antonio has worked on the development of various network and cyber security projects, with a focus on the IoT paradigm. His research interests include network analysis, operational cyber security and information security.
Abstract
This paper describes the deployment of a private cloud and the development of virtual laboratories and companion material to teach and train engineering students and Information Technology (IT) professionals in high-throughput networks and cybersecurity. The material and platform, deployed at the University of South Carolina, are also used by other institutions to support regular academic courses, self-pace training of professional IT staff, and workshops across the country. The private cloud is used to deploy scenarios consisting of high-speed networks (up to 50 Gbps), multi-domain environments emulating internetworks, and infrastructures under cyber-attacks using live traffic.
For regular academic courses, the virtual laboratories have been adopted by institutions in different states to supplement theoretical material with hands-on activities in IT, electrical engineering, and computer science programs. Topics include Local Area Networks (LANs), congestion-control algorithms, performance tools used to emulate wide area networks (WANs) and their attributes (packet loss, reordering, corruption, latency, jitter, etc.), data transfer applications for high-speed networks, queueing delay and buffer size in routers and switches, active monitoring of multi-domain systems, high-performance cybersecurity tools such as Zeek’s intrusion detection systems, and others.
The training platform has been also used by IT professionals from more than 30 states, for self-pace training. The material provides training on topics beyond general-purpose network, which are usually overlooked by practitioners and researchers. The virtual laboratories and companion material have also been used in workshops organized across the country. Workshops are co-organized with organizations that operate large backbone networks connecting research centers and national laboratories, and colleges and universities conducting teaching and research activities.
Crichigno, J., & Bou-Harb, E., & Kfoury, E., & Gomez, J., & Mangino, A. (2020, June), Training and Teaching Students and IT Professionals on High-throughput Networking and Cybersecurity Using a Private Cloud Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--35399
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