1. Distributed Analytics and Security Institute (DASI)
Dr. Dave Dampier, Director
Dr. Sherif Abdelwahed, Associate Director

2. Mission and Vision of DASI
DASI will coordinate, facilitate, and expand research activities across academic and research units involved in the application of high performance distributed computing platforms to the areas of big data analytics, cyber security, and critical infrastructure protection.
DASI will be a unique multidisciplinary center dedicated to excellence in research and will carry out its mission by:
Generating high-quality basic and applied research in the areas of distributed computing, big data analytics, and cyber security
Bringing together scientific and technical expertise from the private, public, and academic worlds
Using state-of-the-art high performance computing technology and analytical procedures to support the information extraction from big data capability across the spectrum from local government to federal government, corporations to academia.
Using state-of-the-art high performance computing technology and analytical procedures to increase the cyber security capability of organizations across the spectrum from local government to federal government, corporations to academia.

3. Mission in a Nutshell
Develop capabilities for Mississippi and the U.S. in national security through high performance computing directed at three primary areas:
Analytics of very large data sets
Security of all types of cyber platforms
Protection of any critical infrastructure dependent on cyber connectivity and control
Research and assess the ability to do these activities over a geographically distributed platform.

4. Impact on Infrastructure
Increase HPC capability.
Shadow Cluster expanded:
Number of nodes increased from 128 to 240.
Peak performance increased from 322 to 593 TFlops.
Shadow Phase II recently upgraded to 57 TBytes of RAM.
Shadow Phase II is the expansion of the cluster and has 112 nodes.
Dedicated to DASI work.
Integration of Big Data Analytics, Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure Protection into the Research Infrastructure of the University
Building the number of research faculty available to take on grand challenges in data analytics and cyber security.
Partnering with national labs to create a distributed HPC infrastructure.

5. Shadow II

6. Memory Upgrade (cont.)
This is what 57TB of RAM looks like! 50 x 32GB DIMMs per tray.

7. Impact on Analytics
Provide a common center for big data analytics efforts to support national security problems.
Bring together isolated efforts across the university in data analytics into one common institute.
Enable collaboration across departments where that collaboration has lacked resources.
Bringing dedicated HPC resources to bear on the BIG-data analytics problem.
i.e., graphs of trillions of edges
Partnering with national labs on analytics problems.

8. Impact on Cyber Security
Mississippi State University has a great reputation in cyber security.
2014 Ponemon Institute Survey ranked MSU 3rd in U.S. for Cyber Security Education
DASI has built an infrastructure that is sufficient enough to compete for large cyber security grants.
We are building capacity so that we can lead large collaborative teams of researchers at multiple institutions to solve grand challenges.
Tremendous capacity for training in cyber security.
Four former digital forensics/cyber security instructors

9. Cyber Security Overview
1 of 6 in U.S. to have all 3 designations!
Cyber Security Overview
NSA/DHS Centers of Academic Excellence
IA/CD Education (Approximately 60 in U.S.)
IA/CD Research (Approximately 50 in U.S.)
Cyber Operations (14 in U.S.)
Cyber Security Scholarship programs supported by the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation – ~135 students supported at MSU since 2001
Major Forensics Training Center
Trained over 6000 LE officers in 40 states
CIPC organized in 2007 with Department of Homeland Security Funding
Unique Laboratory Developed
Cross-disciplinary; multi-College
National/International reputation
Education program ranked 3rd in the U.S.
Auburn University
Carnegie Mellon University
Mississippi State University
Naval Postgraduate School
Northeastern University
University of Tulsa
10 students per year on scholarship!

10. Impact on Critical Infrastructure Protection
A dedicated lab facility for a unique national resource in critical infrastructure protection research.
The control systems lab has moved into the Mac Portera HPCC building.
Opportunities to work with national labs and other partners on large projects for critical infrastructure protection.
Current efforts include determining how to compromise systems to build more effective intrusion detection and prevention systems.
Great for teaching and research

12. Ground Chemical Tank

13. Steel Plant

14. HMI Software

15. Faculty
Dr. Dave Dampier, Director and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
Dr. Sherif Abdelwahed, Associate Director and Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Dr. James Fowler, Associate Director for Analytics and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Seven Assistant Research Professors
Dr. Uttam Adhikari, MSU ECE, Power Systems Security
Dr. Joe Crumpton, MSU CS, Robotics & Homeland Security
Dr. Dae Glendowne, MSU CS, Malware Analysis, Digital Forensics & Machine Learning
Dr. Tan Glendowne, MSU CS, Software Engineering, Data Analytics & Machine Learning
Dr. Patrick Pape, Auburn CS, Software Engineering & Digital Forensics
Dr. Jian Shi, MSU ECE, Power Systems Security
Dr. Nitin Sukhija, MSU CS, High Performance Computing

16. DASI Research Faculty Dave Dampier CSE/DASI Director Sherif Abdelwahad
ECE/DASI
Associate Director
Jim Fowler
ECE/DASI
Associate Director
Uttam Adhikari
DASI/ECE
Joe Crumpton
DASI/CSE
Dae Glendowne
DASI/CSE
Puntitra Glendowne
DASI/CSE
Patrick Pape
DASI/CSE
Jian Shi
DASI/ECE
Nitin Sukhija
DASI/CSE

17. DASI Research Staff Phillip Akers, M.S.E.E. Senior Research Engineer
Hardware/Software Engineering/Digital Forensics
David Lee, M.S.I.S., M.B.A., J.D.
Research Associate III
Cyber Security/ Legal/Policy
Poornima Shrestha, M.S.E.E.
Research Engineer III
Control Systems Security/ Power Systems
Cody Miller, M.S.C.S.*
Research Engineer II
Virtualization/ Digital Forensics
DeMarcus Thomas, M.S.C.S.*
Research Engineer II
Machine Learning/ Digital Forensics
Leah Buttrum, B.S.S.E.
Research Engineer I
Secure Software Engineering
Chris Lightsey, B.S.C.S.
Research Engineer I
Programmer
* Pursuing Ph.D. in Computer Science

18. DASI Affiliated Faculty
Ioana Banicescu
CSE
Drew Hamilton
ORED/CBI
Yaroslav Koshka
ECE
Mike Mazzola
ECE/CAVS
Mark Novotny
Physics/CCS
Merrill Warkentin
MIS
Bob Otondo
MIS
Thomas Haupt
CAVS
Mahalingam Ramkumar
CSE
Nick Younan
ECE
Yong Fu
ECE
Kent Marett
MIS
Bob Reese
ECE
Mohamed El Attar
CSE
Jean Mohammadi-Aragh
ECE
Song Zhang
CSE
Linkan Bian
ISE
Hugh Medal
ISE
Byron Williams
CSE

19. Current Projects
PNNL (HPC/Big Data Analytics/Cyber Security) – Dampier - $14.5M
Circadence (Network Analysis) – Reese - $1.2M
Department of Defense
3 NSA BAA Projects just awarded
Pape (Secure Software Development) - $235K
Sukhija (Security Monitoring) – $75K
Glendowne/Thomas (Memory Forensics) – $75K
Dampier/Hamilton (M.S. in Cyber Operations for Navy) - $189K
Air Force Research Laboratory
Adhikari/Abdelwahed (Mobile Ad-Hoc Sensor Networks) - $75K
Department of Homeland Security
2 BAA Project Awards just announced
Glendowne (Malware Analysis) - $500K
Adhikari (Power Grid Security) - $500K
Cyber Corps
SFS Scholarships – Dampier/Hamilton/Lee – $4.66M

20. Current Initiatives Cyber Training for MSNG Cyber Security Degrees
Digital Forensics (available now)
SCADA Security
Cyber Security Degrees
Current
Information Assurance Certificate for:
CS, CPE, SE, EE, IE, BIS Undergrads and Grads
Cyber Operations Certificate for:
CS, CPE Grads
Proposed
Cyber Security Minor
Future
B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Cyber Security and Operations

21. Research Capabilities
Cyber Security and Operations
Malware Analysis
Memory Analysis, Reverse Engineering, Malware Simulation, Malware Visualization
Intrusion Detection (and one day, prevention)
Network Security
Critical Infrastructure Protection
SCADA Security
Intrusion Detection
Power Grid Security
Digital Forensics
Memory Forensics
Media Forensics
Network Forensics
Data Analytics
Streaming Data, Malware Data, Hyper-Spectral Data, Social Media, Network Data, …
Distributed High Performance Computing

22. Questions and Contact Info
Dr. David A. Dampier Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Director, Distributed Analytics and Security Institute
Dr. Sherif Abdelwahed
Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Associate Director, Distributed Analytics and Security Institute
Dr. James Fowler
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Associate Director for Analytics, Distributed Analytics and Security Institute