NSF Award Abstract #0326387
IIS: Research on the Profiling Problem in Cybersecurity and Anti-Terrorism

Project Abstract:

This project proposes to perform research on new and theoretically sound profiling techniques for detection and identification of terrorists and cyber attacks. A common thread of problems in such attacks is how can we detect "bad guys" from good guys quickly? Various scientific techniques such as data modeling and integration, meta-data management, discrete mathematical models and algorithms, data mining, machine learning, visualization and statistical techniques will be investigated. For example, new mathematical models and algorithms for profiling "bad guys/transactions" will be developed and tested. One research direction is to formulate the problem as a more generalized formulation of the current set covering problem. Efficient algorithms will be developed, and performance bounds of certain algorithms will be studied. Simulations will be done to compare the performance of the new algorithms with conventional algorithms, and the pros and cons of these algorithms will be identified.

Making the models more realistic and testing the algorithms/techniques against more realistic data sets will be done by teaming with LSU's National Center for Security Research and Training (NCSRT), FBI, AFRL, and others. The project team consists of diverse ethnic groups and plans to organize a workshop dedicated to women and under-represented minority.
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If successful, this project can have significant impact on the scientific community and on the society.

Project Performance Period:

Stating date: August 15, 2003

Estimated completion date: January 31, 2010

Estimated Amount of Fund: $1.8 millions

Project Personnel:

Dr. Peter Chen (Principal Investigator), Foster Distinguished Chair Professor of Computer Science, E-mail: pchen at lsu.edu, Home page: www.csc.lsu.edu/~chen
Dr. Guoli Ding (Co-Principal Investigator), Professor of Mathematics, E-mail: ding at math.lsu.edu, Home page: http://www.math.lsu.edu/~ding/

Dr. Brian Marx (Co-Principal Investigator), Professor of Statistics, E-mail: bmarx at lsu.edu, Home page: http://www.stat.lsu.edu/faculty/marx/

Dr. Jianhua Chen (Co-Principal Investigator), Associate Professor of Computer Science, E-mail: jianhua at csc.lsu.edu, Home page: http://www.csc.lsu.edu/~jianhua/jianhua.html

Dr. Robert Lax, Professor of Mathematics, E-mail: lax at math.lsu.edu, Home page: http://www.math.lsu.edu/~lax/
Mr. James Fernandez (Co-Principal Investigator, 2003-2006), Executive Director of NCSRT (National Center for Security Research and Training)

Publications

The faculty and students have published the research results in many articles (over 75 articles). The list of all the publications (and the associated pdf files) produced by this project can be found at the following website: http://130.39.225.153/GWP.htm .

**Note: This material of this web page and the publications listed is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0326387. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).