Center

Center for Security and Privacy Enhanced Cloud Computing (C-SPECC)

The NSF-supported CREST Center for Security and Privacy Enhanced Cloud Computing (C-SPECC) was established in September 2017 as a unit within ICS, in partnership with several UTSA Colleges. C-SPECC goals are:

  1. to pursue excellence in research, innovation, and education in secure cloud computing,
  2. to increase participation of underrepresented groups in high-tech computing, and
  3. to pursue innovative research-based educational strategies in this arena.

Labs

ICS has built and operates two world-class academic research laboratories dedicated to studying current and emerging cyber security issues. Both environments are managed by full-time dedicated technical staff who possess cyber security experience in industry, government, and academia.

AI Security and Innovation Laboratory (AISIL) - San Pedro 1

AISIL is a state-of-the-art facility that supports the Institute for Cyber Security's advanced research and computational needs. With a high-speed 40 Gbps network, it ensures fast and reliable data transfers for complex experiments and data-heavy projects. The institute has two dedicated racks, providing a permanent and secure location for its equipment. AISIL is optimized for machine learning research and virtual machine hosting, offering powerful servers and robust storage capabilities to handle large datasets and demanding computations.

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Cloud Security and Innovation Laboratory (CSIL) - 1604

CSIL provides a robust virtual machine infrastructure designed for scalable and secure research environments. With a variety of high-performance server models, it supports the deployment of independent cloud environments, data streaming solutions, and isolated virtual machines. This flexible architecture allows researchers to create logically separate environments, ensuring secure and efficient operations for a wide range of research projects.

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Notable Software

OSIAS (Open Stack Infrastructure As a Service) ( OSIAS GitLab Repo)
Galahad Software ( Press Release, Galahad Gitlab Repo)

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Grants

Active Research Grants

  1. CREST Center for Security and Privacy Enhanced Cloud Computing (C-SPECC)
    Principle Investigator and Center Director: Ravi Sandhu
    Co-Principal Investigators: Nicole Beebe, Guadalupe Carmona, Ram Krishnan, Jeff Prevost
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2017-2024, Award 1736209
  2. CAREER: Ubiquitous and Time-Critical Federated Learning with Cooperative Mobile Edge Networking
    Principle Investigator: Yanmin Gong
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2021-2026, Award  2047761
  3. A Flexible Testbed for Cyber Deception, Cyber Hardening, and Disinformation Research
    Principle Investigator: Boppana; Co-PI: Slavin
    Sponsor: Department of Defense, 2021-2022
  4. Data Science Bootcamp
    Principle Investigator: Wei Wang
    Sponsor: National Security Agency, 2021-2021
  5. Recruit and Retain Women in Computer Science
    Principle Investigator: Jianwei Niu
    Sponsor: Northeastern University, Khoury College of Computer Science Center for Inclusive Computing (CIC), 2021-2022
  6. CAREER: A Holistic Context-based Approach for Security and Privacy in the Era of Ubiquitous Sensing and Computing
    Principle Investigator: Murtuza Jadliwala
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2020-2025, Award 1943351
  7. CCRI: Planning: ScooterLab: Development of a Programmable and Participatory e-Scooter Testbed to Enable CISE-focused Micromobility Research
    Principle Investigator: Murtuza Jadliwala
    Co-Principle Investigators: Sushil Prasad, Greg Griffin, Anindya Maiti
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2020-2022, Award 2016717
  8. CRII: SaTC: Automatic Generation of API to Natural Language Data Type Mappings for Developer and End User Privacy Risk Mitigation
    Principle Investigator: Rocky Slavin
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2020-2022, Award 1948244
  9. Collaborative Research: SHF: Small: Reuse and Migration of GUI Tests
    Principle Investigator: Xiaoyin Wang
    Co-Principal Investigator: Jianwei Niu
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2020-2023, Award 2007718
  10. CCRI: Planning: Collaborative Research: A Platform for Conducting Software Engineering User Studies
    Principle Investigator: Xiaoyin Wang
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2020-2022, Award 2016604
  11. CRII: NeTS: Embracing Dynamic Spectrum Sharing without Privacy Concerns
    Principle Investigator: Yanmin Gong
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2019-2021, Award 1850523
  12. Cyber Defense of Smart Facilities Using Machine Learning and IoT Honeynets
    Principle Investigator: Rajendra Boppana
    Co-Principle Investigator: Rocky Slavin
    Sponsor: National Security Agency, 2020-2022
  13. CAREER: Software Environment Analysis and Configuration for DevOps Practice
    Principle Investigator: Xiaoyin Wang
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2019-2024, Award 1846467
  14. CAREER: Group-Centric Secure Information Modules, Properties, and Implementation
    Principle Investigator: Ram Krishnan
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2016-2021, Award 1553696
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Completed Research Grants

  1. SaTC: CORE: Small: Collaborative: A Framework for Enhancing the Resilience of Cyber Attack Classification and Clustering Mechanisms
    Principle Investigator: Shouhuai Xu
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2018-2021, Award 1814825
    Transferred to University of Colorado - Colorado Springs on Jan 2021 upon Dr. Xu's move
  2. MTD Dynamics: A Quantitative Framework for Modeling and Orchestrating Moving-Target Defense
    Principle Investigator: Shouhuai Xu
    Sponsor: Army Research Office, 2017-2020, Award W911NF-17-1-0566
  3. ROBOT: Rules Oriented Blockchain Operations Transactor
    Principle Investigator: Murtuza Jadliwala
    Co-Principle Investigator: Raymond Choo
    Sponsor: Emergent Space Technologies, Inc. (NASA), 2019-2020
  4. UTSA Data Science Curriculum Development
    Principle Investigator: Jianwei Niu
    Sponsor: The MITRE Corporation, 2020-2020
  5. Modeling, Analyzing and Predicting Cyber Attacks
    Principle Investigator: Shouhuai Xu
    Sponsor: Army Research Laboratories, 2017-2020, Award W911NF-17-2-0127
  6. Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Sustainable Urban Ecosystems
    Principle Investigator: Adolfo Matamoros
    Co-Principal Investigators: David Akopian, Krystel Castillo, Ravi Sandhu, Christopher Reddick
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2019-2020, Award 1937135
  7. CSR: Surviving Cybersecurity and Privacy Threats in Wearable Mobile Cyber-Physical Systems
    Principle Investigator: Murtuza Jadliwala
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2018-2020, Award 1828071
  8. TWC: Small: Collaborative: Towards Agile and Privacy-Preserving Cloud Computing
    Principle Investigator: Ravi Sandhu
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2018-2019, Award 1634441 - Amend 1
  9. B2CSM: Blockchain-Based Cyber Security Management: Design, Analysis, and Prototype Implementation
    Principle Investigator: Shouhuai Xu
    Co-Principal Investigators: Guenevere Chen
    Sponsor: Air Force Research Lab, 2019-2019, Award FA8750-19-1-0019
  10. Robust Machine Learning for Cyber Operations (Subawardee)
    Principle Investigator: Ravi Sandhu
    Co-Principal Investigators: Jianwei Niu
    Sponsor: University of Texas at Dallas (National Security Agency), 2018-2019, Award NSA Grant No. H98230-18-1-0337 to UT Dallas
  11. EAGER: A Cloud-Assisted Framework for Improving Pedestrian Safety in Urban Communities Using Crowd-Sourced Mobile and Wearable Device Data
    Principle Investigator: Murtuza Jadliwala
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2018-2019, Award 1829066-CNS
  12. Enhancing Safety and Security of Clinical Alarm Systems: An interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical-Human Analysis
    Principle Investigator: Shouhuai Xu
    Sponsor: San Antonio Life Sciences Institute, 2018-2019,
  13. PAM: A Pattern-Based Measurement Model for Improving Software Reliability (Phase 2)
    Principle Investigator: Jianwei Niu
    Co-Principal Investigators: Xiaoyin Wang
    Sponsor: Department of Defense (MSRDC), 2018-2019,
  14. Fine-Grained, Dynamic Virtual Resource Separation in Cloud Platforms for Assured Delivery of Cloud Based Services
    Principle Investigator: Ram Krishnan
    Co-Principal Investigators: Ravi Sandhu
    Sponsor: Army Research Office, 2015-2018, Award W911NF-15-1-0518
  15. EAGER: Tracing Privacy-Policy Statements into Code for Privacy-Award Mobile App Development
    Principle Investigator: Xiaoying Wang
    Co-Principal Investigators: Jianwei Niu
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2017-2018, Award 1748109
  16. REU Supplement to NSF EAGER Project
    Principle Investigator: Xiaoying Wang
    Co-Principal Investigators: Jianwei Niu
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2017-2018, Award 1748109 (Add-on Supplement)
  17. PAM: A Pattern-Based Measurement Model for Improving Software Reliability
    Principle Investigator: Jianwei Niu
    Co-Principal Investigators: Xiaoyin Wang
    Sponsor: Department of Defense (MSRDC), 2017-2018, Award D01_W911SR-14-2-0001-0012
  18. TWC: Small: Attribute Based Access Control for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service
    Principle Investigator: Ram Krishnan
    Co-Principal Investigators: Ravi Sandhu
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2014-2017, Award CNS-1423481
  19. EAGER: Collaborative: IC Supply Chain Security and Quality Control in Business and Social Context
    Principle Investigator: Wei-Ming Lin
    Co-Principal Investigators: Ravi Sandhu, Kefeng Xu
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2015-2017, Award 1538418
  20. Cybersecurity Dynamics
    Principle Investigator: Shouhuai Xu
    Sponsor: Army Research Office, 2013-2017, Award US ARMY W911NF-13-1-0370
  21. Identity and Access Control in the Physical and Virtual Internet of Things
    Principle Investigator: Ravi Sandhu
    Co-Principal Investigators: Ram Krishnan
    Sponsor: University of Maryland, 2016-2016, Award 3 5157-Q1323101
  22. Design and Implementation of Cybersecurity Risk Metrics for Cloud Based IT Infrastructure
    Principle Investigator: Ram Krishnan
    Co-Principal Investigators: Ravi Sandhu
    Sponsor: LMI, 2015-2016, Award PO-000175
  23. A Statistical Framework for Analyzing Cyber Threats
    Principle Investigator: Shouhuai Xu
    Sponsor: Department of Defense (Army), 2013-2016, Award W911NF-13-1-0141
  24. Enhancing Situational Awareness for Emergency Response Using Social Media Provenance
    Principle Investigator: Ram Krishnan
    Co-Principal Investigators: Jae Park
    Sponsor: LMI, 2014-2015, Award C8056
  25. A Theoretical Framework for Cyber Defense Operations
    Principle Investigator: Shouhuai Xu
    Sponsor: Department of Defense (Army), 2012-2015, Award W911NF-12-1-0286
  26. Secure Information Sharing Models for Cyber Response Teams
    Principle Investigator: Ram Krishnan
    Sponsor: LMI, 2013-2014, Award C7393
  27. STTR Phase II: Random Number Generation for High Performance Computing
    Principle Investigator: Raj Boppana
    Sponsor: Silicon Informatics (US Army), 2012-2014, Award US ARMY W911NF-11-C-0026
  28. Cybersecurity Dynamics
    Principle Investigator: Shouhuai Xu
    Sponsor: Department of Defense (Army), 2013-2014, Award US ARMY W911NF-13-1-0370
  29. Securing Named Data Networking with Lightweight Integrity Verification
    Principle Investigator: Ravi Sandhu
    Sponsor: Cisco Research Center, 2013-2014, Award CG# 574271
  30. TC: Medium: Privacy and Declassification Policy Enforcement Framework
    Principle Investigator: William Winsborough
    Co-Principal Investigators: Jianwei Niu
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2010-2013, Award CNS-0964710
  31. Privacy-Enhanced Secure Data Provenance
    Principle Investigator: Ravi Sandhu
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2011-2013,
  32. A Framework for Managing the Assured Information Sharing Lifecycle (MURI)
    Principle Investigator: Ravi Sandhu
    Sponsor: Air Force Office of Scientific Research, 2008-2013, Award FA9550-08-1-0265
  33. SmartData Center 6.5 Server License and Basic Support
    Principle Investigator: Carlos Cardenas
    Sponsor: Joyent, Inc., 2012-2013
  34. IAPD: A Framework for Integrated Adaptive and Proactive Defenses Against Stealthy Botnets (Supplemental Award)
    Principle Investigator: Shouhuai Xu
    Sponsor: Air Force Office of Scientific Research, 2011-2012, Award FA 9550-09-1-0165
  35. IAPD: A Framework for Integrated Adaptive and Proactive Defenses Against Stealthy Botnets
    Principle Investigator: Shouhuai Xu
    Sponsor: Air Force Office of Scientific Research, 2009-2012, Award FA 9550-09-1-0165
  36. Emerging Technology Fund (Ravi Sandhu, ICS)
    Principle Investigator: Robert Gracy
    Sponsor: Office of the Governor, 2007-2012
  37. CT-M: Securing Dynamic Online Social Networks
    Principle Investigator: Ravi Sandhu
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2008-2011, Award CNS-0831452
  38. Self-Healing Payloads
    Principle Investigator: Todd Wolff
    Sponsor: University of Texas at San Antonio, 2011-2011, Award 26-4700-12
  39. Gift-in-Kind: Equipment
    Principle Investigator: Josh Zachry
    Sponsor: Dell, 2011-2011
  40. Army STTR: Parallel Random Number Generators
    Principle Investigator: Raj Boppana
    Sponsor: Silicon Informatics, 2010-2011, Award SI-2010-001
  41. LERR Faculty STAR Award (Ravi Sandhu, ICS)
    Principle Investigator: Robert Gracy
    Sponsor: UT System, 2007-2011, Award T3VJ1995004
  42. Dell AIM Evaluation Program
    Principle Investigator: Josh Zachry
    Sponsor: Dell, 2010-2010
  43. Academic Review of Cyber Crime Index Algorithm
    Principle Investigator: Jeff Reich
    Sponsor: Symantec, 2010-2010
  44. A Systematic Defensive Framework for Combating Botnets
    Principle Investigator: Ravi Sandhu
    Sponsor: Office of Naval Research, 2009-2010, Award N00014-09--1-0776
  45. CT-ISG: Secure Knowledge Management: Models and Mechanisms
    Principle Investigator: Ravi Sandhu
    Sponsor: National Science Foundation, 2007-2009, Award IIS-0814027
  46. Information Operations Across Infospheres
    Principle Investigator: Ravi Sandhu
    Sponsor: Air Force Office of Scientific Research, 2007-2008, Award FA 9550-06-01-0045
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Research Sponsors

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