2024 News

UNT has received the opportunity to work with the U.S. Department of Defense in refining the DoD's hiring process. This grant of $2.1 milltion dollars will be utilized to develop an model to help achieve the DoD's goal.

To learn more, pleaes visit UNT News page.

UNT has achieved a CAE-R (Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Research) designation. This achievement was awarded by the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity.

Drs. Ram Dantu and Cihan Tunc attended the 2024 Centers of Academic Excellence Impact on National Cybersecurity Workforce Event, which was held in Sheraton Dallas, Dallas, TX (June 6, 2024).

Dr. Ram Dantu presented the "Work Skill Readiness Tool" during the event.

D-FW auto dealers shift gears after ransomware attacks disrupt operations. Dealerships are using old-fashioned methods after a ransomware attack on CDK Global.

For more info, please visit Dallas News page.

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering offered the GenCyber Teachers Camp on June 10-14, 2024. The goal of this camp was to boost the cybersecurity expertise of middle and high school teachers. A total of 19 teachers mainly from the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metropolitan area, including Dallas, Keller, Plano, Coppell, Frisco, Arlington, McKinney, Garland, and Irving ISDs, participated in the camp. The camp covered a wide range of cybersecurity topics, including the GenCyber Six Concepts, network security, malware and social engineering defenses, cryptography, computer forensics, and physical security, along with various hands-on activities related to these topics.

NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with cyber security specialist Ram Dantu about disruptions earlier this month to 9-1-1 systems in Nevada, South Dakota, and Nebraska.

For more info, please visit NPR Website.

Drs. Hyunsook Do and Kirill Morozov attended the GenCyber 2024 Spring Meeting on April 18-19 and participated in the workshop discussing the EPNC/RING resources, which provided free and ready-to-use resources for students, teachers, and counselors. The session introduced various websites for cybersecurity resources (e.g., online games, lecture materials, etc.), and it was very informative, and we shared this information with our camp participants (teachers). Other sessions were also interesting and inspiring, particularly the camp experiences shared by other institutions and talks from other federal partners (e.g., NSF and CISA) helped us understand their visions and enthusiasm for cybersecurity education. Overall, we found the organizers and attendees to be very friendly and willing to share information to help each other. Additionally, it was a great place to build networks for future collaborations. The information learned during this meeting helped us to organize a successful GenCyber Camp for Teachers at UNT in June 2024.

Drs. Ram Dantu and Cihan Tunc attended the CAE Annual Symposium (April 16-18 in Louisville, KY). During the symposium, they gave a talk about "Addressing the Critical Shortage of Cybersecurity Instructors".

UNT team (under Dr. Ram Dantu's supervision) receives 2nd place in the Spirit of Innovation competition on 12th April 2024 in Dallas, Texas. The event was organized by the US India Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

The university was designated by the National Security Agency as a National Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense extending to the 2028-2029 academic year, marking 25 years with the distinction.

For more info, read North Texas Daily article.

Congratulations to Shriyaa Balaji, a Texas academy of Mathematics & Science program (TAMS) student for achieving second place in the Texas Junior Academy of Science (TJAS) competition. The topic of research is "AI-based Legal Contract Interpretations for Generation of Smart Contracts".

To learn more, please visit College of Engineering News page.

The Distinguished Speaker Webinar Series is aimed at advancing the state-of-the-art concepts and methods in artificial intelligence and cyber security areas. The series is jointly hosted by the Centers for Cyber Security and AI Research and the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS) at the University of North Dakota College of Engineering & Mines.

Fore more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueOrKrOAJnU

More Texas companies and governments added to list of cyberattack victims
Luxury hospitality giant Omni Hotels & Resorts is only the latest in a long line of companies that have fallen victim to a cybersecurity attack.

Texas has become the target of cyberattacks due to a lack of investment in cyber protection, said Ram Dantu, director of the Center for Information and Cyber Security at the University of North Texas.

“Foreign actors actively monitor and collect information about the physical as well as cyber networks,” he said. “These industries are heavily understaffed in cybersecurity. These industries need specialized cybersecurity efforts. Moreover, every employee needs to be cyber-trained.”

For more info, please visit Dallas New page.

UNT has achieved recognition from the National Security Agency (NSA). This comes from a renewal of UNT’s status as a National Center for Academic Excellence.

To learn more about this event please visit UNT News page.