Research Interests

My research focuses on modeling and analysis of threats to protect next generation Internet, cloud, mobile systems and networks and critical infrastructures. My cybersecurity research lab is addressing fundamental research issues in cyber resilience, risk assessment, data provenance, adaptive models for detecting threats, and practical issues in cloud computing/cyber-physical systems, mobile security, anomaly detection, moving target defense, cloud auditing, and risk management. My research has received federal funding from Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, and Air Force Research Lab.

Books

MDIOT
Blockchain
MTD
DSA


I serve as the ODU site lead for the following centers of excellence.
  1. DOD Cyber Security Center
  2. DOD Center of Excelleince in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
  3. DHS Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute
  4. DOE Cyber Resilient Energy Delivery Consortium
The ongoing research projects include:
  1. High assurance cloud computing using blockchain technologies
  2. Software defined networking for resilient energy delivery systems
  3. Cyber resilience metrics for bulk power systems
  4. Measuring and pricing risk for cyber insurance
  5. Transfer learning techniques to adapt models for detecting unknown cyber attacks
  6. Security risk assessment for Cyber-EW

Grants and Contracts

  1. "Extended Reality enabled 5G Telementoring ",  (Co-PI: Sachin Shetty), (In Collaboration with Peter Woodward, David Ihrie, John Shull, Eranga Herath, Peter Foytik ), HRBRC, 10/1/2021 - 6/30/2022.

  2. "Top Down 5G Network Security Design ",  (Co-PI: Sachin Shetty), (In Collaboration with Jeff Reed, Ying Wang, Laura Freeman ), Deloitte, 5/1/2021 - 12/31/2021.

  3. "Blockchain-Empowered Cyber-Resilient IoT Security Solution ",  (PI: Sachin Shetty), CIT, 6/1/2020 - 5/31/2022.

  4. "AI Model Certification in Operational Environments ",  (PI: Sachin Shetty), (In collaboration with Laura Freeman and Peter Beling, MITRE, 5/1/2020 - 12/31/2020.

  5. "Bulk Electric Systems Supply Chain Cyber Risk Management ",  (PI: Sachin Shetty), Cyber Resilience Energy Delivery Consortium, 6/1/2020 - 5/31/2022.

  6. "Advancements in low latency, resilient and energy efficient 5G networks for smart warehouse ",  (PI: Sachin Shetty), Department of Defense (In Collaboration with multiple investigators from academia and industry)1/1/2021 - 12/31/2023.

  7. "Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning ",  (Co-PI: Sachin Shetty), Department of Defense (In Collaboration with Danda Rawat , Khan Iftekarhuddin and Hongyi Wu)10/1/2020 - 9/30/2025.

  8. "Cybersecurity Monitoring and Assurance Training Program for Safe and Secure Port Operations ",  (PI: Sachin Shetty), Commonwealth Cyber Initative (In Collaboration with Longwood University, Virginia State University and University of Virginia )5/1/2021 - 8/31/2022.

  9. "Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN)-based Internet-of-Medical-Things (IoMT) Network Detection and Response ",  (PI: Sachin Shetty), Commonwealth Cyber Initative (In Collaboration with Tamer Nadeem 6/15/2021 - 5/30/2022.

  10. "Moving Choreography to a New Universe: AI Driven Privacy Automation Approach ",  (PI: Sachin Shetty), Commonwealth Cyber Initative (In Collaboration with Kate Sicchio and Yan Lu 1/5/2021 - 8/31/2021.

  11. "Question Under Discussion Framework to Analyze Misinformation targeting Security Researchers ",  (PI: Sachin Shetty), Commonwealth Cyber Initative (In Collaboration with Teresea Kouri Kissel 6/1/2021 - 5/30/2022.

  12. "Secure and Privacy Preserving 5G Network for Connected Vehicles ",  (PI: Sachin Shetty), Commonwealth Cyber Initative (In Collaboration with Jeff Reed, Cong Shen, Duminda Wijesekra and Kai Zeng 1/1/2021 - 5/30/2022.

  13. "Analytically-based frameworks for AI model verification and improvement in cyber-physical systems ",  (PI: Sachin Shetty), National Science Foundation 10/15/2021 - 9/30/2023.

  14. "Blockchain Empowered Provenance Framework for Sensor Identity Management and Data Flow Security in Fossil-Based Power Plants ",  (PI: Sachin Shetty), Department of Energy 9/1/2019 - 8/30/2022. (collaboration with Deepak Tosh @UTEP).

  15. "Attack Graph Modeling and Risk Remediation Plan, ",  (PI: Sachin Shetty), Electric Power Research Institute, 8/1/2020 - 7/30/2020.

  16. "Cyber Risk Scoring and Mitigation ",  (PI: Sachin Shetty), Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund, 7/1/2018 - 6/30/2019.

  17. "Networked Device Identity Management using Blockchain ",  (PI: Sachin Shetty), Sentara Healthcare, 1/1/2018 - 12/31/2020.

  18. "Data Provenance Assurance in Cloud Using Blockchain ",  (PI: Sachin Shetty), Air Force Research Lab, 8/20/2016 - 09/30/2019, (collaboration with Aziz Mohaisen @UCF, Danda Rawat @Howard and Deepak Tosh @UTEP).

  19. "Towards Community Resilience through Comprehensive Risk Assessment for Business Continuity ",  (PI: Sachin Shetty), DHS Critical Infrastructure Resilience Infrastructure Subcontract, 1/1/2017 - 6/30/2018.

  20. "Analyzing and Supporting the Development of the Cyber-insurance Market as a Market-Based Solution for Cyber Resiliency Project ",  (PI: Sachin Shetty), DHS Critical Infrastructure Resilience Infrastructure Subcontract, 7/1/2015 - 12/31/2016.

  21. "Defenses and countermeasures of jamming attacks in wireless mesh networks",  (PI: Sachin Shetty, Co-PI, L.H. Keel and Liang Hong), NEEC Contract, 3/14/2016 - 3/13/2019.

  22. "Distributed machine learning for anomaly detection in massive datasets",  (PI: Sachin Shetty, Co-PI: Juan Zhao), Boeing Contract, 1/1/2016 - 12/31/2018.

  23. "CC*DNI Campus Design: Internet2 Infrastructure to Enable Research in Big Data Science and Engineering at Tennessee State University,”  NSF, 01/01/2016 - 12/31/2017 (PI: Sachin Shetty, CO-PI: Matthew Muterspaugh, Suping Zhou, Matthew Blair)

  24. "Cyber Resilient Energy Delivery Consortium", DOE, 10/1/2015 - 9/30/2020, (Consortium comprising of 11 universities and national laboratories led by University of Illinois, ODU Site PI:   Sachin Shetty ), .

  25. "Embedded Systems Security", ONR, 8/1/2015 - 7/31/2018, (PI: Sachin Shetty, Co-PIs: Nghi Tran (University of Akron), Arjuna Madanayake (University of Akron) and Jeffrey Fan (TSU))

  26. "Center of Excellence in Cyber security", AFRL, 9/14/2015 - 3/13/2020, (PI: George Hsieh (NSU), Co-PIS: Jonathan Graham (NSU),  Sachin Shetty, Jose Padilla (ODU)),

  27. "Blue-Shirt Program: Engineering Clinic-Based Curriculum", NSF, 7/1/2015 - 6/30/2019, (PI: S.K. Hargrove, Co-PI: Sachin Shetty),

  28. "Data Analytics for Securing Critical Infrastructure", DHS, 10/01/2014 - 9/31/2020, (PI: Martene Stanberry and Co-PI: Sachin Shetty),

  29. "Research Initiation Grant: Secure Measurement-Based IP Geolocation for Cloud Auditing", NSF(Supplement Funding), 09/1/2014 - 08/31/2015,(PI: Sachin Shetty)

  30. "Collaborative Research:II-NEW: RUI: ROAR- A Research Infrastructure for Real-time Opportunistic Spectrum Access in Cloud based Cognitive Radio Networks,”  NSF, 08/01/2014 - 07/31/2017 (PI: Sachin Shetty). (Collaboration with Danda Rawat @ GSU)

  31. "IUSE: Collaborative Project: Building Virtual Research, Interactive, Service, and Experiential Learning Modules for Cyber Security Education,”  NSF, 08/01/2014 - 07/31/2017 (PI: Sachin Shetty). (Collaboration with Feng Li @ IUPUI and Kaiqi Xiong @ RIT)

  32. "Scholarships for Preparing the Global Engineer for Tomorrow's Workforce,”  NSF, 07/01/2013 - 06/30/2016 (PI: Sachin Shetty, Co-PI: S.K. Hargrove).

  33. "Collaborative Project: Building An Innovative Smartphone Virtual Laboratory Environment for Cyber-security Education and Training,”  NSF, 08/01/2013 - 07/31/2016 (PI: Sachin Shetty). (Collaboration with Feng Li @ IUPUI and Kaiqi Xiong @ RIT)

  34. "Minority Leaders Program: Cyber-Security Research for Distributed Sensor Systems and Cloud Computing Applications,”  (PI: Sachin Shetty), Clarkson Aerospace/AFRL Subcontract, 11/29/2012 - 11/30/2013.

  35. "Development of an agile and resilient security architecture to protect embedded systems from emerging cyber threats",  (PI: Sachin Shetty, Co-PI: L. H. Keel), Boeing Contract, 11/1/2012 - 12/31/2015.

  36. Amazon Web Services Education Grant, (PI: Sachin Shetty), 02/01/2012 - 01/31/2013

  37. "Collaborative Cyber Attack Data Capturing, Sharing and Analysis for Cloud Security", AFOSR, 10/1/2011 - 09/30/2012, PI: Sachin Shetty, (subcontracted from UTSA), .

  38. 2012 AFRL Visiting Faculty Fellowship Program, Rome, NY, (PI: Sachin Shetty), 06/04/2012 - 08/1/2012,

  39. "DoD HBCU/MI Research and Educational Program: Heterogeneous VM Replication: A New Approach to Intrusion Detection, Active Response, and Recovery in Cloud Data Centers", AFOSR, 12/1/2011 - 12/31/2014, (PI: Mohan Malkani, Co-PI: Sachin Shetty and Peng Liu @ PSU),

  40. "Research Initiation Grant: Secure Measurement-Based IP Geolocation for Cloud Auditing", NSF, 09/1/2011 - 08/31/2013,(PI: Sachin Shetty),

  41. 2011 DHS Scientific Leadership Award, "Network Measurement and Mapping", 09/01/2011 - 08/31/2016, (PI:Sachin Shetty and Deo Chimba, Co-PI),

  42. "Targeted Infusion Grant: Cyber Security Education and Research Training for ECE and CS programs ", NSF, 09/11/2011 - 08/31/2014, ( PI: Tamara Rogers, Co-PI: Sachin Shetty and S.K. Hargrove),

  43. "Collaborative Research: TUES: Vertical Integration of Concepts and Laboratory Experiences in Biometrics Across the Four Year Electrical and Computer Engineering Curriculum", NSF, 10/1/2011 - 09/30/2015, (PI: Sachin Shetty and Co-PI: Liang Hong). (Collaboration with Rowan University and Bucknell University)

  44. 2011 AFRL Visiting Faculty Fellowship Program, Rome, NY, 06/01/2011 - 08/11/ 2011,(PI:Sachin Shetty), $

  45. 2010 DHS Scientific Leadership Award, "Visual Analytics and Anomaly Detection", 02/01/2011 - 01/31/ 2016, (PI:Sachin Shetty),

  46. "Targeted Infusion Grant: Development of a Virtual and Augmented Reality Laboratory for Research and Education at Tennessee State University", NSF, 09/15/2010 - 08/31/2013, ( PI:  S.K. Hargrove, Co-PI: Sachin Shetty) ,

  47. "CI-TEAM Demonstration: Interactive and Collaborative Learning Environment using Virtual Reality Games Promoting Metacognition for Science and Engineering Design in Context"  NSF, 09/1/2010 - 08/31/2013, (PI: Sachin Shetty, Co-PI: S.K. Hargrove), subcontracted from Rowan University.

  48. TBR Access and Diversity Grant, "Tennessee Rising Stars",  (PI: S.K. Hargrove, Co-PI: Sachin Shetty), 07/01/2010 - 06/30/2013,

  49. NSF/DoE FaST Award, "Optimal Support Vector Machines for Intrusion Detection", (PI:Sachin Shetty), 05/01/201- - 08/01/2010, $22,000.

  50. “Empowering Students with Engineering Literacy and Systematic Problem Solving through Interactive and Cost-Effective Games,” NSF, 09/01/2009- 08/31/2012, ( PI: Sachin Shetty), subcontracted from Rowan University,

  51. Siemens, “Intuitive Flowmeter Sizing Software,”  (PI: Robert Hesketh, Co-PI: Sachin Shetty), 08/01/2008 - 07/31/2009,

 

Research Team

Research Staff

  • Tan Le, Research Assistant Professor
  • Yan Lu, Research Assistant Professor
  • Masud Rana, Research Assistant Professor
  • Safdar Bouk, Research Assistant Professor
  • Soumya Banerjee, Postdoctoral Research Associate
  • Sandip Roy, Postdoctoral Research Associate
  • Sarada Prasad, Postdoctoral Research Associate
  • Peter Foytik, Senior Project Scientist
  • Eranga Herath, Project Scientist
  • Priyanka Aggarwal, Project Scientist

Graduate Students

  • Md Sharif Ullah, PhD Candidate
  • Mahmudul Hasan, PhD Student
  • Md Reza Al Amin, PhD Candidate
  • Ariful Haque, PhD Student
  • Sayyed Fareed, PhD Student

 Alumni

  • Kamrul Hasan(Ph.D.), Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Tennessee State University
  • Xueping Liang (Postdoctoral research associate), Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department, Virginia State University
  • Juan Zhao (Postdoctoral research associate), Postdoctoral Research Associate, Biomedical Informatics Department, Vanderbilt University
  • Yu Wang (Software Developer), Big Data Developer, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
  • Deepak Tosh (Postdoctoral research associate), Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department, University Texas El Paso
  • Uttam Ghosh (Postdoctoral research associate), Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, Vanerbilt University
  • Vasanth Iyer (Postdoctoral research associate), Currently working as Visiting Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department, Oklahoma State University
  • Xuebiao Yuchi (Postdoctoral research associate), Currently working as a research scientist at China Internet Network Information Center
  • Lingchen Zhang (Visiting scholar), Currently working as a research scientist at Institute of Information Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • Marco Gamarra (Ph.D.)
    • Dissertation Title: A Multi-Agent Systems Approach for Analysis of Stepping Stone Attacks
    • Graduation Year: December 2019, First Employer: Air Force Research Lab
  • Asmah Muallem (Ph.D.)
    • Dissertation Title: Threat Detection Using Distributed Ensembles of Hoeffding Trees on Streaming Cyber Datasets
    • Graduation Year: May 2018, First Employer: Asurion
  • Paul McNeil (Ph.D.)
    • Dissertation Title: SCREDENT: Scalable Real-time Anomalies Detection and Notification of Targeted Malware in Smartphones
    • Graduation Year: December 2016, First Employer: Scrappylock
  • Kimberly Gold (Ph.D.)
    • Dissertation Title: Mulitisensor fusion for secure mobile proximity detection
    • Graduation Year: December 2016, First Employer: Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane
  • Ashraf Al Sharah (Ph.D.)
    • Dissertation Title: Integrated Game Theoretic and Network Integrity Scheme to Detect and Mitigate Insider Threats in MANET and Colluding Jamming Attack
    • Graduation Year: May 2016
  • Biswajit Biswal (Ph.D.)
    • Dissertation Title:  Secure Measurement Based Geolocation to Locate Data in Cloud DataCenters
    • Graduation Year: May 2016, First Employer: South Carolina State University
  • Sai Kiran Mukkavilli (Ph.D.)
    • Thesis Title:  Network Traffic Anomaly Detection for IAAS Cloud
    • Graduation Year: August 2016, First Employer: Tennessee State University
  • Hellen Maziku (Ph.D.)
    • Thesis Title:  Towards Infrastructure Based Software Defined Security
    • Graduation Year: August 2016, First Employer: Tennessee State University
  • Waled Tayib (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title:  Machine Learning as a Service using Apache Spark
    • Graduation Year: May 2016, First Employer: Asurion
  • Divya Guntu (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title:  User Behavior Modeling For The Prediction, Profiling And Detection Of Malware In Mobile Devices
    • Graduation Year: August 2016, First Employer: HCA
  • Gauree Barve (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title:  DROIDDOCKER: Dynamic Analysis of Android Applications on Docker
    • Graduation Year: August 2016, First Employer: Hitactics
  • Kodanda Ram Reddy Tippy Reddy  (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title: Network-Aware Bandwidth Provisioning for Service Level Agreement Assurance
    • Graduation Year: August 2016
  • Kamrul Hasan (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title:  Cross-Layer Attack on GSM Mobile Networks Using Software Defined Radios
    • Graduation Year: August 2016, First Employer: PhD student (ODU)
  • Taiwo Oyedare (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title: A Reputation-Based Coalition Game to Detect and Prevent Insider Smart Jamming Attacks in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks
    • Graduation Year: August 2016, First Employer: PhD student (Virginia Tech)
  • James Savage (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title:  Detection of Co-Resident Virtual Machines using Network Traffic Patterns
    • Graduation Year: August 2016, First Employer: HealthTrust Purchasing Group
  • Prasanthi Yughandhar (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title:  Dynamic Analysis of Android Malware using Droidbox
    • Graduation Year: May 2016
  • Priya Chaurasia (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title:  Dynamic analysis of Android malware using Droidbox
    • Graduation Year: Dec 2015, First Employer: Take Care Health Systems
  • Ayodeji Borode (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title:  Cloud based opportunistic access for cognitive radio networks
    • Graduation Year: May 2015, First Employer: Community Health Systems
  • Sabah Alzharani (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title:  Scalable Network Traffic Analysis on Cloud Computing Platform
    • Graduation Year: May 2015, Ph.D. Student @TSU
  • Laila Almutairi (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title:   Scalable evolutionary computation for efficient information extraction from remote sensed imagery
    • Graduation Year: December 2014, Ph.D. Student @TSU
  • Gao Pan (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title:  Exploration of genetic algorithm optimal parameters for feature extraction from remotely sensed imagery
    • Graduation Year: December 2014, First Employer: CommVault
  • Manu Misra (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title:  Network bandwidth provisioning for ensuring service level agreement (SLA)-based service guarantees
    • Graduation Year: December 2014, First Employer: V-soft Consulting
  • Prachi Mandil (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title: Cloud based detection system to protect android smart phone devices from man-in-the-middle attacks
    • Graduation Year: December 2013, First Employer: eClinicalWorks
  • Khurram Raza (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title: Secure Radio Resource Management In Cloud Computing Based Cognitive Radio Networks
    • Graduation Year: December 2013
  • Husam Adas (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title: Cloud Computing Based Detection Of Malicious URL Attacks On Android Smart Phones
    • Graduation Year: December 2013,First Employer: Asurion
  • Swetha Reddy Lenkala (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title: Risk Assessment of Cloud Carrier
    • Graduation Year: December 2012, First Employer: Towers Watson
  • Asmah Muallem (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title: Visualizing Geolocation of Spam Email
    • Graduation Year: December 2012, First Employer: Asurion
  • Hellen Maziku (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title: Enhancing the classification accuracy of IP Geolocation,
    • Graduation Year: May 2012, Ph.D. Student @TSU
  • Ermias Tedla (M.S.)
    • Thesis Title: Intercepting Filter Approach to Detect and Prevent SQL Injection Attacks on Vulnerable SQL Codes
    • Graduation Year: Dec 2011
  • Kodzo Agbedanu (M.E.)
    • Project Title: Spectrum Access in Multi User Multi Channel Environment Using the Hungarian and Greedy Algorithms in a Cognitive Radio Network
    • Graduation Year: Dec 2010, First Employer: Verizon