Alperovitch Institute for Cybersecurity Studies

Today, we hosted ALPIN Adjunct Prof. Brandon Levene for a FANTASTIC lecture on "Understanding the Cybercrime Ecosystem." We talked about ransomware, breaches, intruders, monetization, and mitigation (tip: don't reuse passwords online, use a password manager!). Brandon Levene teaches a unique course on "Cybercrime and Cybercriminals," which explores cybercrime’s complex and rapidly evolving world, and teaches our students foundational investigative techniques for understanding cybercriminals’ actions, motives, tactics, and strategies. ?? Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)

If you missed it this summer, this is your opportunity to take the Advanced Alperovitch Workshop,?The Science of Hacking: Weird Machines, Vulnerabilities, and Exploits, taught by Perri Adams. Dates: 4 DAYS –?October 25, 26, 27, and 28, 2024 Time: 10 – 4:30PM ?? : Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) students, please apply?here?by?October 15, 2024 ?? https://lnkd.in/e_CzdfZT Non-Hopkins participants, please contact our Managing Director Dr. Elly R.. Check out what we did this summer here ?? https://lnkd.in/eBrNaz4y https://lnkd.in/epSCSamz

Last week, we headed to Phoenix for #LABScon24, an intimate event for the world’s top cybersecurity minds to gather, share cutting-edge research, and push the envelope of threat landscape understanding. This year, we had 5 members of the Institute’s faculty, staff, and students presenting: Juan Andres Guerrero Saade, Gabriel B., MJ Emanuel, Dr. Elly R., and Martin Wendiggensen. Congratulations to Alperovitch Institute Managing Director, Dr. Elly R.. for winning the 2nd Best Speaker award for her keynote, “Follow the Money: Uncovering the Incorporation of the CCP’s Ownership of Chinese Firms Investing in the United States,” presenting findings from her research into the national security vulnerabilities from Chinese foreign direct investment in the American biotech and entertainment sectors. Congratulations to Alperovitch PhD Fellow, Martin Wendiggensen, who took the 3rd Best Speaker Award for his keynote, “The Real AI Race – Disinformation in the Taiwanese Election,” based on his research on AI disinformation, deep fakes, and lying bots. More here ?? https://lnkd.in/eKHWsKyX Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center

The Alperovitch Institute is out strong #LABScon24 again this year! Our Managing Director, Dr. Elly R., will be closing Keynote Day speaking on "Follow the Money: Uncovering the Incorporation of the CCP's Ownership of Chinese Firms Investing in the United States." Juan Andres Guerrero Saade (the man behind #LABScon24) will be speaking on "The Consolation of Threat Intelligence." Adjunct Professor Grabriel Bernadett-Shapiro's talk will introduce a novel attack against the most popular LLM integration of the past year - Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) systems. Adjunct Professor MJ Emanuel will be "Unearthing the Archaic: 25 Years of SSL VPNs and their Lifecycle Vulnerability Footprints." Alperovitch PhD Fellow, Martin Wendiggensen, will be speaking on "The Real AI Race - Disinformation in the Taiwanese Election." Congratulations ALPINers! ?? ?? ?? ?? : https://lnkd.in/errze8gu Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center

Earlier this summer, we spent 3 days taking the intensive Advanced Alperovitch Workshop course,?The Science of Hacking: Weird Machines, Vulnerabilities, and Exploits, designed and taught by?Perri Adams. By the end of the intensive course, our students walked away with a hacker’s understanding of what makes our computers?insecure, how a vulnerability becomes a tool for hacking, and we even wrote our own exploits ?????! w/ Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Dr. Elly R., and Lee Foster. ?? Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center ??Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Some pictures from our intensive course together:

Welcome to the newest Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) class and to all our returning students! Looking forward to a new and exciting academic year together! ?? Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center

What does it take to build a top-tier national offensive cyber program? That’s what we spent 2 days together learning to do! Daniel Moore,?author of?Offensive Cyber Operations: Understanding Intangible Warfare,?walked us through the step by step process to create an offensive cyber program, from establishing requirements, to creating operational capacity. We explored the powerful intersection of signals intelligence, human intelligence, and network operations, and examined how cryptography researchers, malware developers, and operators work together to develop access solutions with impactful, surgical effects. Some scenes from our intensive 2-day workshop together:

The Alperovitch Institute is delighted to offer the fourth in our series of Alperovitch Advanced Workshops – The Science of Hacking: Weird Machines, Vulnerabilities, and Exploits,?which will be taught by Perri Adams. ??: 3 DAYS – July 10, 11, and 12, 2024 | 10-4PM ??: Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) students, please apply?by?Friday, June 31, 2024. Non-Johns Hopkins/SAIS participants, please contact our Managing Director, Prof. Elly R. ([email protected]). ????: https://lnkd.in/erf6HeY8

We are excited to welcome Perri Adams, Special Assistant to the Director at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to the Alperovitch Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Perri will be teaching an intensive course on the theory and principles behind hacking and securing complex computer systems. Welcome Perri! ?? ?? : https://lnkd.in/eN9Dc4dT