About Me

Currently, I am a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science (former Computing and Information Sciences) at Kansas State University. Furthermore, I am a K-State alumnus and was priviledged to be advised by Xinming (Simon) Ou and by Scott A. DeLoach.

Research

My research interests are focused on cybersecurity. Currently, I am working on moving target defenses and cloud security. I am also involved in bringing anthropology into cybersecurity. Previous projects I worked on include malware analysis using fuzzy hashing techniques and defense strategies against UDP based DDoS attacks.

Cyber Defense Club

Together with Simon Ou, I founded the Cyber Defense Club at Kansas State University.

Industry Experience

• Research Associate Intern at HP Labs - Princeton, NJ
• ASERT Engineer Intern at Arbor Networks - Ann Arbor, MI

Education

• PhD. 2016  Computer Science, Kansas State University
• M.S. 2010   Secure Software Systems, James Madison University
• B.S. 2008   Computer Science for Business Management,
                     Romanian-American University, Romania
• B.A. 2008   Domestic and International Business, Banking and Finance,
                     Romanian-American University, Romania
                     (Final Project Presentation July 2009)

Trainings and Competitive Events

• Black Hat USA 2012 - Hacking by Numbers: BlackOps
• Inquiry-based Cyber Defense Competition Workshop, Iowa State University, 2014
• Cyber Defense Competitions: NCDC 2015 (3rd place), 2014 (2nd place)
                                                  RMCCDC 2013 (2nd place), 2012 (5th place)

Professional Affiliations

• The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (ΦΚΦ)
• USENIX Association
• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

Personal

I am originally from Sibiu, Romania. Sibiu is a medieval town located in the southern part of Transylvania. In 2007 Sibiu was European Capital of Culture.