The unprecedented increase in frequency, scale and variety of cyber-attacks is an indicator of the fact that the traditional cybersecurity paradigms have not been able to cope with the expanding scale and heterogeneity of cyber infrastructures, the increasing sophistication and scale of cyber-attacks, and the evolving nature of cyber-threat actors. Such paradigms have mostly relied on manual and point solutions that usually focus on signature-based and model-driven detection and prevention of cyber-threats.
Reversing the dynamics of cyber warfare requires introducing a different cybersecurity paradigm. One of the most notable efforts in this direction is the “Science of Security” (SoS) initiative by NSA, which follows a variety of goals including defining quantifiable security metrics, building resilient architectures, and understanding the evolving nature of cyber-attacks. Toward this end, a “data scientific” approach is considered among most promising new cybersecurity paradigms to achieve these goals, where data science is defined as the science that allows exploiting information buried in massive data sets in the era of Big Data. Accordingly, in this project we will focus on “Data-driven Cybersecurity”, a prevailing cybersecurity paradigm that has the potential to address the aforementioned limitations of the traditional paradigms by deployment and extension of data scientific solutions.
Toward that end, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education (DoEd), this GAANN (Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need) Program, titled Data-Driven Cybersecurity GAANN Program (DDC GAANN Program, or DDC Program for short), is established at the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Department, College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS), University of Colorado Denver (UCD). The general objective of the DDC GAANN project is to address the considerable national need for experts in academia and industry by establishing a doctorate fellowship program on the topic of “cybersecurity” with a focus on “data-driven cybersecurity”. In particular, with this fellowship program we pursue the following specific objectives:
- Objective I: To recruit, retain, and train eligible doctorate fellows, including talented graduate students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds, on the topic of cybersecurity with a focus on data-driven cybersecurity.
- Objective II: To establish and sustain a graduate level educational program on the topic of cybersecurity with a focus on data-driven cybersecurity.
- Objective III: To establish and sustain a research program on the topic of cybersecurity with a focus on data-driven cybersecurity.
The DDC fellowship program will provide financial support for fellows in the form of tuition & fees, in addition to up to $34,000 annual stipend for up to three years. Note that the amount of financial support may be adjusted so as not to exceed the fellow's level of financial need as determined under title IV, part F, of the Higher Education Act for the period of the fellow's enrollment.
