Overview

My research interests are mainly focused on cybersecurity. Currently, I am involved in a variety of research projects such as leveraging moving target defenses in various environments, developing metrics and more effective tools for security operation centers, embedding security in DevOps tools, exploring software updating ecosystems, and enhancing the cyber layer of the power grid. Previous projects include bringing anthropology into cybersecurity, analyzing DNS data, malware analysis using fuzzy hashing, and defense strategies against UDP-based DDoS attacks.

undo Cybersecurity Lab

I am fortunate to work (or have worked) with a number of bright and talented students:

• Yousif Dafalla (PhD)
• Shawn Robertson (PhD)
• Mohd Mamoon (PhD)
• Kabir Panahi (MS CS)
• Michael Oliver (BS CS)
• Daniel Gonzales (BS CoE)
• Andrew Uriell (BS CS)
• Jahnvi Maddila (BS CS)
• Dylan Davis (BS CS)
• Jarrett Zeliff (MS CS, graduated, now at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
• Matthew Petillo (BS CS, 2022 - 2024)
• Ron Heminway (BS CoE, graduated)
• Hunter Glass (MS CS, graduated)
• Dalton Brucker-Hahn (PhD, graduated, now at Sandia National Laboratories)
• Kailani Jones (PhD, graduated, now at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas)
• Alaa Daffalla (MS, graduated, now at Cornell Tech)
• Ahsan Muhammad (BS CS, 2019 – 2021)
• Cameron Kientz (BS CE, graduated, now at Cerner)
• Ron Andrews (MS CS, graduated, now at Northrop Grumman)

Publications

• CloudCover: Enforcement of Multi-Hop Network Connections in Microservice Deployments. Dalton Brucker-Hahn, Wang Feng, Shanchao Li, Matthew Petillo, Alexandru G. Bardas, Drew Davidson, Yuede Ji. In Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC), Waikiki - Hawaii, USA, December 2024.
• Web-Armour: Mitigating Reconnaissance and Vulnerability Scanning with Scan-Impeding Delays in Web Deployments. Yousif Dafalla, Dalton Brucker-Hahn, Drew Davidson, Alexandru G. Bardas. In Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC), Waikiki - Hawaii, USA, December 2024.
• "But they have overlooked a few things in Afghanistan:" An Analysis of the Integration of Biometric Voter Verification in the 2019 Afghan Presidential Elections. Kabir Panahi, Shawn Robertson, Yasemin Acar, Alexandru G. Bardas, Tadayoshi Kohno, Lucy Simko. In 33nd USENIX Security Symposium, August 2024.
• Work-From-Home and COVID-19: Trajectories of Endpoint Security Management in a Security Operations Center. Kailani R. Jones, Dalton A. Brucker-Hahn, Bradley Fidler, Alexandru G. Bardas. In 32nd USENIX Security Symposium, August 2023.
• Book chapter: Political Activism and Technology. Alaa Daffalla and Alexandru G. Bardas. In AI Embedded Assurance for Cyber Systems. Editors: C. Wang, S. Iyengar, K. Sun. Springer, 2023.
• Defensive Technology Use During the 2018-2019 Sudanese Revolution. Alaa Daffalla, Lucy Simko, Tadayoshi Kohno, Alexandru G. Bardas. In IEEE Security and Privacy Magazine (Special Issue). March-April 2022.
• Weather-Aware Data-Driven Microgrid Energy Management Using Deep Reinforcement Learning. Amin Shojaeighadikolaei, Arman Ghasemi, Alexandru G. Bardas, Reza Ahmadi, Morteza Hashemi. In 53rd North American Power Symposium (NAPS 2021), November 2021.
• Defensive Technology Use by Political Activists During the Sudanese Revolution. Alaa Daffalla, Lucy Simko, Tadayoshi Kohno, Alexandru G. Bardas. In IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P) -- Oakland, May 2021.
• Deploying Android Security Updates: An Extensive Study Involving Manufacturers, Carriers, and End Users. Kailani R. Jones, Ting-Fang Yen, Sathya Chandran Sundaramurthy, Alexandru G. Bardas. In ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), November 2020.
• A Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach for a Distributed Energy Marketplace in Smart Grids. Arman Ghasemi, Amin Shojaeighadikolaei, Kailani R. Jones, Morteza Hashemi, Alexandru G. Bardas, Reza Ahmadi. In IEEE International Conference on Communications, Control, and Computing Technologies for Smart Grids (SmartGridComm), November 2020.
• Demand Responsive Dynamic Pricing Framework for Prosumer Dominated Microgrids using Multiagent Reinforcement Learning. Amin Shojaeighadikolaei, Arman Ghasemi, Kailani R. Jones, Alexandru G. Bardas, Morteza Hashemi, Reza Ahmadi. In IEEE 2020 North American Power Symposium (NAPS), October 2020.
• Security Issues and Challenges in Service Meshes -- An Extended Study Dalton A. Hahn, Drew Davidson, and Alexandru G. Bardas. arXiv version, October 2020.
• MisMesh: Security Issues and Challenges in Service Meshes (Short Paper). Dalton A. Hahn, Drew Davidson, and Alexandru G. Bardas. In Security and Privacy in Communication Networks (SecureComm), October 2020.
• Prosumer Nanogrids: A Cybersecurity Assessment. Yousif Dafalla, Bo Liu, Dalton A. Hahn, Hongyu Wu, Reza Ahmadi, and Alexandru G. Bardas. In IEEE Access, Volume 8, July 2020.
• Measuring the Prevalence of the Password Authentication Vulnerability in SSH. Ron Andrews, Dalton A. Hahn, and Alexandru G. Bardas. In IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) – Communications and Information System Security (CISS) Symposium, June 2020.
• eyeDNS: Monitoring a University Campus Network. Chandan Chowdhury, Dalton A. Hahn, Matthew R. French, Eugene Y. Vassermann, Pratyusa K. Manadhata, and Alexandru G. Bardas. In IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) – Communications and Information System Security (CISS) Symposium, May 2018.
• MTD CBITS: Moving Target Defense for Cloud-Based IT Systems. Alexandru G. Bardas, Sathya Chandran Sundaramurthy, Xinming Ou, and Scott A. DeLoach. In 22nd European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (ESORICS), September 2017.
• Humans are dynamic. Our tools should be too. Innovations from the Anthropological Study of Security Operations Centers. Sathya Chandran Sundaramurthy, Michael Wesch, Xinming Ou, John McHugh, Siva Raj Rajagopalan, and Alexandru G. Bardas. In IEEE Internet Computing Magazine, May/June 2017.
• Turning Contradictions into Innovations or: How We Learned to Stop Whining and Improve Security Operations. Sathya Chandran Sundaramurthy, John McHugh, Xinming Ou, Michael Wesch, Alexandru G. Bardas, and Siva Raj Rajagopalan. In 12th USENIX Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS), June 2016.
• Evaluating and Quantifying the Feasibility and Effectiveness of Whole IT System Moving Target Defenses. Alexandru G. Bardas. PhD dissertation, Kansas State University, May 2016.
• A Theory of Cyber Attacks - A Step Towards Analyzing MTD Systems . Rui Zhuang, Alexandru G. Bardas, Scott A. DeLoach, and Xinming Ou. In 2nd ACM Workshop on Moving Taget Defense (MTD), October 2015.
• Experimental Study of Fuzzy Hashing in Malware Clustering Analysis. Yuping Li, Sathya Chandran Sundaramurthy, Alexandru G. Bardas, Xinming Ou, Doina Caragea, Xin Hu, and Jiyong Jang. In 8th USENIX Workshop on Cyber Security Experimentation and Test (CSET), August 2015.
• A Human Capital Model for Mitigating Security Analyst Burnout. Sathya Chandran Sundaramurthy, Alexandru G. Bardas, Jacob Case, Xinming Ou, Michael Wesch, John McHugh, and Siva Raj Rajagopalan. In 2015 USENIX Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS), July 2015. Distinguished Paper Award
• Compiling Abstract Specifications into Concrete Systems – Bringing Order to the Cloud. Ian Unruh, Alexandru G. Bardas, Rui Zhuang, Xinming Ou, and Scott A. DeLoach. In 28th USENIX Conference on Large Installation System Administration (LISA), November 2014.
• Investigating the Application of Moving Target Defenses to Network Security. Rui Zhuang, Su Zhang, Alexandru G. Bardas, Scott A. DeLoach, Xinming Ou, and Anoop Singhal. In 6th International Symposium on Resilient Control Systems (ISRCS), August 2013.
• Setting up and using a cyber security lab for education purposes. Alexandru G. Bardas and Xinming Ou. In Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges Vol 28 Issues 5, April 2013.
• Classification of UDP Traffic for DDoS Detection. Alexandru G. Bardas, Loai Zomlot, Sathya Chandran Sundaramurthy, Xinming Ou, S. Raj Rajagopalan, and Marc R. Eisenbarth. In 5th USENIX Workshop on Large-Scale Exploits and Emergent Threats (LEET), April 2012.

Patents

• Protecting Computing Assets from Resource Intensive Querying Attacks. Roland E. Dobbins, Alexandru G. Bardas, and Marc R. Eisenbarth. Patent Application US20150312272A1. October 29, 2015.

Refereed Posters

• Alexandru G. Bardas. Creating and Managing Structurally-Morphing IT Systems – Moving Targets. In 2019 NSF Secure and Trustworthy CyberSpace Principal Investigators' Meeting. October 2019. (Invited)
• Alexandru G. Bardas and Bradley Fidler. A Sociotechnical Metrics Framework for Network and Security Operation Centers. In 2019 NSF Secure and Trustworthy CyberSpace Principal Investigators' Meeting. October 2019. (Invited)
• Dalton Hahn and Alexandru G. Bardas. Introducing Moving Target Defense Methods to Secure the World of IoT Devices in Cyber-Physical Systems. In the University of Kansas NSA Science of Security Lablet Workshop on Securing the Internet of Things. October 2018. (Peer-reviewed)
• Alexandru G. Bardas, Ian Unruh, Rui Zhuang, Xinming Ou, and Scott A. DeLoach. Compiling Abstract Specifications into Concrete Systems – Bringing Order to the Cloud. In USENIX Annual Technical Conference (ATC). June 2014. (Peer-reviewed)
• Jason Jones, Marc R. Eisenbarth, Michael Barr, Alexandru G. Bardas. A Survey of Fuzzy Hashing Algorithms for Malware Clustering. In USENIX Security. August 2013. (Peer-reviewed)
• Alexandru G. Bardas, Loai Zomlot, Sathya Chandran Sundaramurthy, Xinming Ou, S. Raj Rajagopalan, and Marc R. Eisenbarth. Classification of UDP Traffic for DDoS Detection. In USENIX Security. August 2012. (Peer-reviewed)

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