GMU Cyber Resilience Center

Great pleasure to be invited to speak about #ai, #cybersecurity of #missioncriticalsystems like power and energy at GMU Cyber Resilience Center event

We are pleased to announce the addition of a new speaker to our lineup, bringing even more insights to the event! Dr. Manic is a Professor with the Computer Science Department and Director of VCU Cybersecurity Center at Virginia Commonwealth University, He completed over 50 research grants in AI/ML in cyber and energy and intelligent controls. He authored over 200 refereed articles, has given over 50 invited talks around the world, authored over 200 refereed articles in international journals, books, and conferences, holds several U.S. patents and has won 2018 R&D 100 Award for Autonomic Intelligent Cyber Sensor (AICS), one of top 100 science and technology worldwide innovations in 2018. He holds Joint Appointment with Idaho National laboratory, is an inductee of US National Academy of Inventors (senior class of 2023, member class of 2019), and a Fellow of Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (specialty in AI & Cybersecurity). He is an IEEE IES President, IEEE Fellow (for contributions to machine learning based cybersecurity in critical infrastructures), Senior Inductee of US National Academy of Inventors (NAI), recipient of IEEE IES 2019 Anthony J. Hornfeck Service Award, 2012 J. David Irwin Early Career Award, 2017 IEM Best Paper Award, associate editor of Transactions on Industrial Informatics, Open Journal of Industrial Electronics Society, and Senior Life AdCom member. He served as AE of Trans. on Industrial Electronics, was a founding chair of IEEE IES Technical Committee on Resilience and Security in Industry, and was a General Chair of IEEE ICIT 2023, IEEE IECON 2018 (record breaking, over 1,100 participants), IEEE HSI 2019. RSVP: https://lnkd.in/euB_Xnqg

Join us for a discussion on how Artificial Intelligence is beginning to shape the future of our energy systems. With two knowledgeable speakers sharing their insights, this event offers a chance to explore the role AI is playing in improving power grid efficiency and reliability. It’s a great opportunity to learn and engage in a more intimate setting with experts passionate about energy and technology. RSVP and Speaker Bios: https://lnkd.in/euB_Xnqg 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘐 𝘌𝘹𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘱 𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 GMU Cyber Resilience Center. 𝘞𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦!

“I knew when I started my research in this field over 20 years ago that AI would unleash enormous speed and power in innovation, which is at the heart of what drives George Mason University. Power lies in our ability to harness this technology in sustainable and democratic deployment that improves society and the human condition. I am thrilled to work alongside brilliant faculty, students, staff, and industry partners to position George Mason at the forefront of AI in the Commonwealth of Virginia.” -Amarda Shehu #AllTogetherDifferent #MasonNation 💚💛

Do you work in decentralized finance (DeFi) or in the cryptocurrency industry? If so, you are a target for North Korean social engineering schemes and you may be targeted in highly personalized and convincing ways. Here’s an illustration of how these schemes operate: • Let’s say you work in DevOps at a DeFi organization. A person from your dream company, using the name of an old colleague, contacts you on social media, mentioning a conference you both recently attended and discussing shared interests. • He asks if you're job hunting and reveals his company needs your skills, offering a significant pay raise. • Your former colleague arranges an interview with his CTO. During the interview, the CTO gives you a “pre-employment” test that involves troubleshooting code from some GitHub repositories you do not recognize. • You clone the repositories, execute the code, find the bugs, and pass the test with flying colors. Here is where the nightmare begins—you have fallen for a well-disguised social engineering scheme conducted by North Korean cyber actors. One of those GitHub repositories was malicious and landed a malware dropper on your machine. The North Koreans installed a key logger and acquired your credentials to access your company’s network. After some time spent pivoting and moving laterally, the North Koreans gain access to the seed phrases and security signatures for your company’s cryptocurrency assets. One night at 3 a.m., the North Koreans transfer all your company’s crypto assets to wallets they control. It is all gone, tens of millions of dollars in assets—everything you and your colleagues worked for, and it will be almost impossible to get back. The threat is real. These tactics are being used right now against employees of DeFi and cryptocurrency companies worldwide. Read the #FBI’s new #PSA to learn how to protect yourself and what to do if you believe you are a victim of North Korean social engineering: https://lnkd.in/gsQ9v2bE

Two George Mason faculty appointed to Virginia AI task force Amarda Shehu (pictured), a professor of computer science and associate dean in the College of Engineering and Computing, and Padhu Seshaiyer, a professor of mathematical sciences in the College of Science, were named to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) EO30 task force, prompted by Executive Order (EO) 30 by Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin. https://lnkd.in/eJpWrN3h #AIinVirginia #HigherEducationVA #STEMinVA #EngineeringandComputing #SCHEV

Virginia’s Local and State Government Cybersecurity Officials Gathered on August 14th in a Powerful Partnership led by GMU Cyber Resilience Center and Center for Assurance Research and Engineering. George Mason University Fairfax County Public Schools Henrico County Public Schools CyberSecurity Center VCU York County, Virginia Commonwealth of Virginia Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Shenandoah County Public Schools Middlesex County Public Schools, VA George Mason University - College of Engineering and Computing

Join us for the 2024 George Mason – NSF Virginia state and local government cybersecurity partnering workshop at the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond. The program includes: Artificial intelligence and local and state government Zero Trust in State and Local Government Fostering risk management culture in local government administration Local government cyber-insurance update Discussion of recent Virginia ransomware attacks and associated incident response Water utility cybersecurity and associated new regulations Who should attend: State and Local Government Administrators, IT and Cybersecurity Administrators, K-12 IT and Cybersecurity Administrators and Police and Emergency IT Managers RSVP here: https://lnkd.in/ediuy6uz This workshop will feature an esteemed group of speakers who will share their insights on the latest trends and challenges in cybersecurity: Matt Posid – Chief Security Officer, KPMG Charles Huntley – Director, Information Technology, Essex County, Virginia and Vice President, VaLGITE Tim Wyatt – Director, Information Technology, York County and President, VaLGITE Gerrit VanVoorhees – Director, Information Technology, City of Petersburg and Treasurer, VaLGITE Suzanne Tills – Chief Information Officer, City of Fredericksburg and Chair, Legislative Committee, VaLGITE Mike Watson – CISO, Commonwealth of Virginia David Tackett – Election Security Advisor, Region 3, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency V.J. Rao – CISO, Fairfax County Public Schools Brian Maddox – Director of Technology, Henrico County Public Schools Nicole Huntley – Instructional Technology Resource Teacher, Middlesex County Public Schools Douglas Culler – Director of IT, Shenandoah County Public Schools Milos Manic – Director, Virginia Commonwealth University Cybersecurity Center and Director, Commonwealth Center for Advanced Computing Chris Carey – Administrator, VAcorp J.P. Auffret – George Mason University Kari Soniat – Director of Information Services, VRSA Bao Nguyen – Technology Director, Fairfax Water John Harrison – Cybersecurity State Coordinator (Virginia), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency The workshop is part of the George Mason-National Science Foundation Cybersecurity City and County Cross Jurisdictional Collaboration project, having the goal of strengthening U.S. city and county cybersecurity governance including by developing foundations and policies that enable and foster city and county cybersecurity partnerships.

Please join the GMU Cyber Resilience Center for a virtual workshop on Thursday, June 20th. This workshop will feature discussions led by distinguished speakers Larry Medsker, Ph.D., and J.P. Auffret, Ph.D. The focus will be on the recent White House AI Executive Order, with particular attention to Innovation, Competition, and International Considerations. This event is the second in a series of workshops on the AI Executive Order, with future sessions addressing Workforce, Privacy, Intellectual Property, and Standards. ABOUT J.P. AUFFRET Dr. J.P. Auffret is the director of the Center for Assurance Research and Engineering (CARE) in the College of Engineering and Computing and the director of the Research Partnerships and Grants Initiatives in the School of Business at George Mason University. He was previously director of the business school’s executive degree programs, including the MS in Technology Management; the MS in Management of Secure Information Systems; and the Executive MBA. Dr. Auffret is also co-founder and vice president of the International Academy of CIO and has served on several recent Commonwealth of Virginia commissions including the Commonwealth of Virginia Health Information Technology Advisory Commission (HITAC) and the Electronic Medical Records Advisory Committee of the Virginia General Assembly’s Joint Commission on Technology and Science (JCOTS). ABOUT LARRY MEDSKER Larry Medsker is presently Chair of the ACM US Technology Policy Committee, Research Professor of Physics at George Washington University (GWU) and at the University of Vermont. He is also Research Professor in the Human-Technology Collaboration Lab at GWU, and Founding Director of the university’s Master’s Program in Data Science. Medsker serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of AI and Ethics, Associate Editor of Neural Computing and Applications, and Policy Officer for ACM’s Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence (SIGAI). He is the author of four books and over 100 publications on neural networks and AI. Please join us for this insightful discussion. We look forward to your participation. RSVP: https://lnkd.in/en7mM2dA