Group: CARE Researchers

Dr. Eric Osterweil is an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at George Mason University. He studied physics and computer science at the Johns Hopkins University and earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. Between these degrees he worked as a professional software engineer for many years, building large-scale production systems at a variety of companies. After earning his doctorate, he conducted research and led investigations as a principal scientist Verisign. While there he studied and published works on inter-domain routing security in the Internet, researched/designed/implemented/operationalized a large-scale DDoS detection and defense system for DNS attacks, and researched the previously unrecogonized threats posed by name collisions with the DNS.

• Office: ENGR 5346
• Office Hours: M 10:00am – 11:30am
• Email: eoster@gmu.edu
• web: https://cs.gmu.edu/~eoster/

Dr. Itamara Lochard is the Director of Cyber Policy Studies at George Mason University, a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Technology & National Security Policy at U.S. National Defense University, a Senior Researcher of International Security at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, and a certified mediator. Since 1988, she has examined the para-state function, organizational structure and patterns of cooperation of active sub-state groups. In 2004, she developed a database correlating 1,750 active groups comprising 1,000+ members with various metrics of governance. She regularly presents analyses on these data, irregular war, strategiccommunications and cyber/ICT at various OSD, NATO, and UN fora.Operationally, Dr. Lochard co-developed and participated in the initial years of all EUCOM-funded computer network operations, military-to-military, familiarization exercises in both Estonia and the Republic of Georgia. These were the first cyber-related efforts of its kind. In addition, she was the founding commander of the first U.S. civilian cyber defense force unit at the rank of Colonel. She also chaired a multi-year research panel of the NATO Human Intelligence (HUMINT) CoE in Romania commissioned by NATO HQ for Alliance doctrine development. Furthermore, she regularly supports the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence (CCDCOE) in Estonia and the NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence (StratCom COE) in Latvia.

Academically, she has taught graduate school at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy and at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies where she served as the founding director of their cyber initiative in the office of the president. She has also conducted executive education workshops for political and military members of Armenia, Estonia, Macedonia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE Critical National Infrastructure Authority. In 2008, Dr. Lochard created the “Terrorists’ Use of Cyber” course for the NATO Center of Excellence-Defense Against Terrorism (CoE-DAT) which was the first of its kind by the Alliance and continues to be a staple NATO course. In addition, she has trained U.S. Special Forces at U.S. Joint Special Operations University (JSOU) and pre-ISAF deployment troops at NATO Rapid Deployable Corps (NRDC-T) in information operations, non-state groups, and strategic communications.

In addition to presenting her research at academic and policy conferences, for several years, Dr. Lochard served as a contributing editor to Princeton University’s, “Journal for Public and International Affairs.” She also conducted research at the African Studies Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies as well as at Stanford University’s International Institute of Studies. She has been awarded numerous grants and fellowships from George P. Shultz foundation, H.B. Earhart foundation, Lynde and Harry Bradley foundation, the International Institute of Studies at Stanford University, Office of Naval Research, and Sandia National Laboratories.

Dr. Lochard earned a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and holds four graduate degrees from Stanford University and the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy. She received a Presidential award for citizenship and public service at Tufts University, the Order of Thor from the Military Cyber Professionals Association at the Naval Postgraduate School, and was awarded a Medal of Honor for Special Services from the Cyber Defense League – Defense Forces of the Republic of Estonia.

Office: 4420 Engineering Building

Web: cs.gmu.edu/~dbarbara

Daniel Barbará has been researching and applying machine learning and data mining for over 20 years. While teaching in Mason’s Department of Informaton and Software Engineering since 1997, he has lead many research teams as a government contractor (ARMY, DoD, NSF) years.

Background: Before joining academia, Dr. Barbará was a senior scientist in Panasonic Labs, where he led a group of researchers and programmers in several industrial projects, resulting in a number of patented technologies. He also worked for several years as a senior scientist at the Matsushita Information Technology Laboratory. He has previously taught at Princeton University and the Universidad Simon Bolivar in Venezuela.

Dr. Barbará’s deep machine learning background and body of work is well-known and respected through the computer science community.

Education:  PhD, Computer Science, Princeton University; MSE, Computer Science, Princeton University; and BS, Electrical Engineering, Universidad Metropolitana, Caracas, Venezuela.

Office: 436 Research Hall

Web: cs.gmu.edu/~duminda

Duminda Wijesekera is a professor in Mason’s Department of Computer Science, a visiting research scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and co-director of the Center for Assurance Research and Engineering (CARE). In addition, he leads the Laboratory of Radio and RADAR Engineering (RARE), a collaboration between academia, industry and government agencies.

Research: Dr. Wijesekera’s current research addresses three main areas.

1) Security and safety of cyber physical systems. Research in this area includes safety and security of trains, aircraft, ships and automobiles, creating secure cognitive radio networks that ensure mandated safety guarantees. He also collaborates on systems and communication security of power grids.
2) Electronic support for medical procedures. These include formulating, validating and verification of safety of medical workflows (now called Careflows), privacy and security medical data.
3) Digital forensics. Research in digital forensics include creating potential scenarios from evidence and creating frameworks for argumentations, error management of forensic data and add odds ratio between different scenarios that fit evidence.

Background: Prior to joining Mason as an assistant professor in 1999, Dr. Wijesekera was a senior systems engineer at Honeywell Space Systems in Clearwater, Florida. He has been a visiting post-doctoral fellow at the Army High Performance Research Center at the University of Minnesota.

Education: PhD, Mathematical Logic, Cornell University; PhD, Computer Science, University of Minnesota; and BSc in Mathematics, University of Colombo in Sri Lanka.

Office: 437 Research Hall

Web: cs.gmu.edu/~astavrou

Angelos Stavrou is a professor in the Computer Science Department and the founder of the Center for Assurance Research and Engineering (CARE) at George Mason University.

He is also the founder of Kryptowire, which provides provides mobile application software assurance tools, anti-piracy tools, marketplace security analytics, and mobile brand protection. Since its inception in 2011, Kryptowire has grown organically with a customer base ranging from major financial institutions to national telecommunications companies.

Research: Dr. Stavrou’s research interests include mobile device security, network security and intrusion detection, and his work is funded by several organizations including NSF, DARPA, ARO, DHS, AFOSR, IARPA and NIST. Dr. Stavrou received the Computer Science Department Young Faculty Research Award in 2010.

Publications: Dr. Stavrou has published over 40 papers on large systems security & survivability in major international journals and conferences.

Education: PhD (with distinction), Computer Science, Columbia University; MPhil, Computer Science, Columbia University; MSc, Electrical Engineering, Columbia University; MSc, theoretical Computer Science, University of Athens; and BS, Physics, University of Patras, Greece.