Tutorials/Roundtable Discussions

Tutorials

Patrick McDaniel

Tsun-Ming Shih Professor of Computer Sciencesy, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Tutorial 1

Title: Teaming for a Frontier Proposal

Abstract: As a Principal Investigator who has successfully obtained frontier research funding, Dr. Patrick McDaniel will share his insights in his talk titled, "Teaming for a Frontier Proposal." One of the most critical points in obtaining frontier funding is selecting and maintaining the right team members. Drawing from my experiences with a successful frontier award, Dr. McDaniel will review the progress of his project and highlight how assembling and maintaining an exceptional team was pivotal to its success.

Bio: Patrick McDaniel is the Tsun-Ming Shih Professor of Computer Sciences in the School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Professor McDaniel is a Fellow of IEEE, ACM and AAAS, a recipient of the SIGOPS Hall of Fame Award and SIGSAC Outstanding Innovation Award, and the director of the NSF Frontier Center for Trustworthy Machine Learning. He also served as the program manager and lead scientist for the Army Research Laboratory's Cyber-Security Collaborative Research Alliance from 2013 to 2018. Patrick's research focuses on a wide range of topics in computer and network security and technical public policy. Prior to joining Wisconsin in 2022, he was the William L. Weiss Professor of Information and Communications Technology and Director of the Institute for Networking and Security Research at Pennsylvania State University.

Jelena Mirkovic

Research Associate Professor, Principal Scientist, University of Southern California

Tutorial 2

Title: SPHERE: Security and Privacy Heterogeneous Environment for Reproducible Experimentation

Abstract: This tutorial will introduce a very early prototype of SPHERE (proto-SPHERE) - a research infrastructure we are building for reproducible experimentation in cyber security and privacy. Participants will learn how to use SPHERE and will have an opportunity to become beta users and work with us on refining SPHERE's design and implementation. They will perform hands-on activities on proto-SPHERE and will discuss with the organizers how SPHERE can help their research.

Bio: Jelena Mirkovic is Project Leader at USC/ISI and research faculty at USC. She received her MS and PhD from UCLA, working in the LASR group, lead by Prof. Peter Reiher. She received BS in Computer Science and Engineering from School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia.

Jelena's research interests span networking and security fields. Her current research is focused on several network security problems: botnets, denial-of-service attacks, and IP spoofing. Additionally, she is interested in methodologies for conducting security experiments and she is working with colleagues at USC/ISI on improving DeterLab testbed. Please explore links on the left sidebar to learn more about Jelena's research and teaching.

Jelena is actively involved with the USENIX CSET workshop and the PAM conference. She also maintains a Web site for hands-on security exercises.

Elissa Redmiles

Clare Luce Boothe Assistant Professor, Georgetown University

Tutorial 3

Title: Epistemology Tutorial: Best Practices for Qualitative & Quantitative User Studies

Abstract: This tutorial will review best practices for conducting surveys, experiments, and qualitative user studies in the area of security and privacy. Participants will review differences between user study methods as well as various options for recruiting participants. The tutorial will include an introduction to best practices for data analysis, reporting, and ethical engagement with human subjects. Resources for further learning will be shared as part of the tutorial.

Bio: Dr. Elissa M. Redmiles is the Clare Luce Boothe Assistant Professor at Georgetown University in the Computer Science Department and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. She was previously a faculty member at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems. Dr. Redmiles uses computational, economic, and social science methods to understand users’ security, privacy, and online safety-related decision-making processes. Her research has received multiple paper recognitions at USENIX Security, ACM CCS, ACM CHI, ACM CSCW, and ACM EAAMO. Dr. Redmiles has presented her work at the White House, European Commission, and the National Academies and her work has been featured in popular press venues such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, Rolling Stone, Wired, and Forbes.

Wu-Chang Feng

Professor, Portland State University

Tutorial 4

Title: Teaching Generative Security Applications using LangChain

Abstract: LangChain is a popular development platform for constructing applications that utilize Large Language Models. As the defacto "operating system" that many LLM applications are now being built on top of, it is becoming one of the most important topics the current generation of students can learn. This tutorial covers the initial curriculum and code that has been developed to teach students how to build cybersecurity applications using LangChain and LLMs. It will also cover some of the experiences and outcomes of teaching a course that is centered around building generative security applications. The curriculum and code are openly available for use anywhere, including in non-academic settings.

Bio: Wu-chang Feng is a professor of Computer Science at Portland State University where he develops capture-the-flag games and codelabs for teaching students topics in cloud computing and security. The exercises can be found via https://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~wuchang.

Yixin Sun

Anita Jones Career Enhancement Assistant Professor, University of Virginia

Tutorial 5

Title: Bootstrap Cybersecurity Research with FABRIC

Abstract: This tutorial provides an overview of the FABRIC testbed, a research infrastructure to enable at-scale experiments on networking that intersects with interdisciplinary fields including cybersecurity. We will discuss use cases of FABRIC for cybersecurity research, including (1) integrating FABRIC with a secure routing infrastructure to enhance security and performance, and (2) utilizing the new Kali Linux image with FABRIC. We will further discuss capabilities of FABRIC that can support the future generation of cybersecurity experiments.

Bio: Yixin Sun is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on network security and privacy, such as digital certificates, DNS, routing security, traffic analysis, and anonymous communications. She is one of the early experimenters of FABRIC. She obtained her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Princeton University in 2020.