Janelle Irwin Taylor
A Florida Polytechnic University professor won a $70,500 grant to create a new course on mobile computing security and privacy, the school announced Wednesday.
Karim Elish, an assistant professor in the computer science department, received the grant from the Florida Center for Cybersecurity. He’ll use the money to create an ongoing and evolving course relating to mobile computing security.
“Virtually everyone has a smartphone and tablet, and there are a lot of attacks against these devices,” Elish said. “But, we don’t know how we can defend or design countermeasures against all of these attacks.”
The curriculum will include hands-on virtual labs and will promote collaboration and resource sharing within the community of cybersecurity education.
Elish said there is a lack of educational materials and curricula focused on mobile computing security and said the topic is not well-represented in undergraduate computing programs in the U.S., and particularly in Florida.
Cybersecurity classes typically focus on network, software and computer security, Elish said.
Elish’s doctoral research at Virginia Tech included developing techniques to detect malware apps on Android devices. He discovered several in apps available through the Google Play store where Android users download new apps for their phones or tablets.
“We need to do something to detect these so we can protect our devices from leaking data and personal information,” Elish said. “It’s very important to teach the students how to defend, understand, and analyze these types of attacks.”
Elish will spend the next year developing his course and hopes to have classes available to students next fall.
Florida Polytechnic is the state’s newest public university. The Florida Legislature created it to add a technical hub to its roster of post-secondary institutions.
The school is now home to several innovative programs including its SunTrax facility currently under construction. When completed, that facility will be used to test autonomous vehicles and other transportation technology.
