Starting January 18, 2022, I will be teaching a course on Distributed Systems and Critical Infrastructure protection. Joe Weiss will be a guest speaker and provide feedback on class projects. Joe Weiss and I hope to use the course to improve the state of critical infrastructure protection. The course will be available asynchronously online.

Joe Weiss publishes a blog where he weighs in on cybersecurity, science and technology, and emerging security threats. On Sunday, January 2, 2022, Joe Weiss published: A vulnerability worse than Log4j (and it can blow up facilities and shut down the grid). In this post, he notes that “More than 3,000 smart instruments in a petrochemical facility were found to have no passwords, even by default. You simply plug in your HART communicator and change whatever you want. These changes can blow up refineries, burst pipelines, release toxic chemicals, take over electric transformers, etc.“

Stanford published a study identifying the top 2% in many scholarly fields. I was pleased to find my name on the list in Computer Science. For more details see https://news.mst.edu/2021/12/64-researchers-affiliated-with-missouri-st-among-top-2-in-their-fields/.

We keep spending an ever-increasing amount of money on cybersecurity, yet we do not seem to be getting more “cyber-secure.” Why is that? My paper “Cybersecurity – A High-Level Perspective,” offers some insight into this problem. You can find in on pages (33-43) of the proceedings of the 16th Annual Symposium on Information Assurance (ASIA ‘21) which you can find https://www.albany.edu/iasymposium or https://docgm.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/asia2021_proceedingsfinal.pdf.

Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, I will virtually attend and participate in the 15th Annual Symposium on Information Assurance (ASIA) which is part of the larger 23rd Annual New York State Cyber Security Conference. Registration for the larger conference is free for government employees and educators, $50 for employees of non-profit organizations, and $200 for everyone else. Registering for the larger conference also registers you for ASIA. I have attached the program for ASIA. Below are some useful links related to these conferences.

ALL TIMES ARE EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME.

ASIA Conference Description

The 16th Annual Symposium on Information Assurance (ASIA ‘21) will be held in conjunction with the 24th New York State Cyber Security Conference on June 8-9, 2021 virtually. The three-day conference offers training on the final day. In the past, this joint event has attracted well over 1,000 participants including practitioners, researchers and vendors, providing opportunities for business and intellectual engagement among attendees. The symposium is organized by the University at Albany School of Business, the Enterprise Information Security Office (EISO) of the NYS Office of Information Technology Services (ITS), and the New York State Forum.

ASIA Program

Asia 2021 Program

Conference Registration, including ASIA

Registration for NY State Cyber Security Conference

NY State Cyber Security Conference Description

June 2021 marks the 23rd Annual New York State Cyber Security Conference and 15th Annual Symposium on Information Assurance (ASIA) and we invite you to join us virtually for this nationally recognized event. Hosted by the New York State Office of Information Technology Services, the University at Albany School of Business, and The New York State Forum, Inc., the event takes place June 8 and 9. New York State is a recognized leader in the field of cyber security and Governor Andrew M. Cuomo remains committed to putting systems and practices into place that protect New York’s critical assets, prevent debilitating problems, and keep New Yorkers safe from cyber threats. The conference is part of a statewide effort to boost cyber security awareness and empower state and local governments, academia, organizations and citizens to take better control of their digital security. The conference offers something for everyone: whether you’re a technology user, IT professional, government employee, or business owner. Learn from leading experts in the industry and participate in engaging sessions that provide real-world information you can apply immediately to minimize the cyber risks in your own environment.

For More Information

Detailed Information about the NY State Cyber Security Conference

Misdirected communication has obvious security and privacy ramifications and is an age-old problem that predates the Internet. In recent years it has been exacerbated by the arrival of electronic communication and the multitude of ways that communication can be misdirected. A new chapter in this age-old problem is being written with the proliferation of top-level domains (TLDs). This paper examines this problem in more detail and provides a full analysis of the current set of TLDs. In particular, we are concerned with TLDs that have a non-trivial probability of intercepting traffic intended for another domain. Intercepting TLDs have the potential of intercepting a lot of traffic since typically a TLD supports many domain names.

We have included the full text of my most recent paper on this subject:

Markowsky Interceptor Top-Level Domains Paper

Here is our latest report showing the potential interference among the TLDs:

May 29, 2021 Interceptor Top-Level Domains Report

December 7-9, 2021
Singapore, Singapore

Papers are due on May 31, 2021 – I am a Technical Committee Co-Char for this Conference.

The call for papers and more details are available at https://icdf2c.eai-conferences.org/2021/

The 11th IEEE International Conference on
Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems: Technology and Applications (IDAACS’2021)

September 22-25, 2021 

Cracow, Poland

MDPI Sensors provides a sponsorship:
– Best Paper Award and the Best Young Author Paper Award, 400 CHF per each
– Discount of 10% for publishing extended papers

Extended versions of selected papers will be published in international Journals indexed by Web of Science, Engineering Index (Compendex) and Scopus:
– MDPI Sensors
– International Journal of Computing
– Acta IMEKO

Special Issue Convergence of Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems is published in Sensors:  https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/7/2262

Organized by:

		Faculty of Electrical and Computer EngineeringCracow University of TechnologyCracow, Poland
		Research Institute for Intelligent Computer Systems, West Ukrainian National University and V.M. Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics, National Academy for Sciences of Ukraine, Ukraine
		IEEE Ukraine Section I&M / CI Joint Societies Chapter

I am on the Program Committee and the Chair of the International Advisory Board for this Conference. It is part of a series that has been held since 2001. The IDAACS Conferences always include very interesting people from around the world. I invite you to submit a paper. For more information, go to http://www.idaacs.net/2021

Kraków, written in English as Krakow and traditionally known as Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Province, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596^[ and has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, economic, cultural and artistic life. Cited as one of Europe’s most beautiful cities, its Old Town was declared the first UNESCO World Heritage Site in the world.

(From https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/cracow)

Annual Symposium Overview

The 16th Annual Symposium on Information Assurance (ASIA ‘21) will be held in conjunction with the 24th New York State Cyber Security Conference on June 8-9, 2021 virtually. The three-day conference offers training on the final day. In the past, this joint event has attracted well over 1,000 participants including practitioners, researchers and vendors, providing opportunities for business and intellectual engagement among attendees. The symposium is organized by the University at Albany School of Business, the Enterprise Information Security Office (EISO) of the NYS Office of Information Technology Services (ITS), and the New York State Forum.

I am on the Technical Program Committee for this conference and I invite you to submit a paper. We are also looking for reviewers. You can find the call for papers and more details about the conference at https://www.albany.edu/iasymposium.

This video goes into the history of Ayers Island which is located in Orono, Maine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af1U5XcghHM. You can learn more about Ayers Island here. I hope to have a lot more information about the island in future posts.