News
Department of Cybersecurity

The Cybersecurity Visiting Student Research program brought together 12 graduate and undergraduate students throughout the summer to explore new cyber research and share their cultural experiences. Visiting students came from Italy, the Netherlands, India, Taiwan, Poland, United Kingdom, and the U.S.

Engineering technology and computing students at RIT found ways to reduce energy consumption at the university’s Margaret's House Child Care Center. Members of RIT’s student chapter of National Electrical Contracting Association (NECA) worked this spring with child care staff as part of the annual NECA Green Energy Challenge, an annual student design competition.

A new 15-week program at RIT is teaching people all the skills they need to start a new career in cybersecurity. Starting in July, learners can enroll in RIT’s Cybersecurity Bootcamp, an immersive hands-on training course that will prepare them for critical entry-level roles in the cybersecurity workforce. The program aims to help professionals from all backgrounds and abilities set themselves up to transition into an in-demand career.

If cars talked to each other, it would improve the travel experience and help save lives—but it could also lead to malicious, even life-threatening, cyberattacks. At RIT, a team of student researchers are working to bridge this cybersecurity gap in vehicle-to-vehicle communications.

RIT’s cyber defense team is getting a first-hand look at the challenges of socially distanced business operations, as they prepare for a new format of the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC). The annual championship is part of the nation’s largest college-level cyber defense competition, an extracurricular event that helps to train the next generation of cybersecurity experts.

Just because computing security student Jack McKenna is graduating, that doesn’t mean he’s going to stop learning. In his new job as a cybersecurity researcher at MITRE, McKenna, will constantly be on the lookout for new ways to use computing security techniques in order to help strengthen the nation’s cyber defenses.

WROC-TV talks to Jonathan Weissman, senior lecturer of computing security, about phishing attempts targeting those awaiting stimulus checks.

A team of RIT cybersecurity students is moving on to the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC) after taking first place at the Northeast regional competition March 20–22. The students pulled together a win, despite having to compete from separate locations across the country, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

College students who want to break into the computing industry can start at the upcoming WiCHacks hackathon Feb. 29 – March 1 at RIT. For the two-day hackathon, teams work together to create apps, websites, games and other software that provide unique solutions to problems.

RIT hosted the international finals of the Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition (CPTC) Nov. 22-24. Stanford University took home the top trophy in the 2019 competition, while RIT placed second and California State Polytechnic University, Pomona placed third. 

RIT computing security lecturer Justin Pelletier is back to his regular office hours this semester, after taking part in a six-month-long military tour in Afghanistan earlier this year. As an Army Reserve counterintelligence officer, Pelletier traveled across Afghanistan and was based in the special operations headquarters, helping to assess and counter foreign threats.

WROC-TV talks to Rob Olson, lecturer in the Department of Computing Security, and students Will Eatherly and Nishi Prasad about being safe online.