Hacker Tracker Catches Cyber Threats

An assistant professor in the Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science could stop hackers in their tracks.

Elias Bou-Harb, Ph.D., director of the university’s Cyber Threat Intelligence Laboratory and FloridaSOAR (security operation and response), created an operational tool that detects cyber exploitations, pinpointing attacks in real time and sharing threats with Internet of Things (IoT) operators to remediate attacks. “Attackers are actually using vulnerable IoT to target internet assets,” he said. His work could protect cyberspace security and mitigate privacy exploitations.

In his team’s 24-hour study, funded by the National Science Foundation, more than 250,000 cyberattacks were detected nationwide. “The goal of real-time detection is to remediate infections and prevent future malicious activities.”

Next: Bou-Harb is researching IoT-powered cyberattacks on critical infrastructures, like power grids, and how to remediate them, with support from the University of South Florida.