News

December 13 Talk by Dr. Neil Klingensmith on "Zero Involvement Authentication for the Internet of Things" at the US CYBERCOM Academic Engagement Network Tech Talk

December 1 NCL Fall 2023 Season

Loyola ranked 48 out of 521 colleges and universities! 

Joshua Honig ranked 32 in Individual game, Eno Dynowski ranked 63rd

The Avengers, consisting of Ethan Davis, Waad Al Abdulrhman, Fayaz Syed, Nicholas Synovic, Nitya Guntaka, Mohammed Sheriff, and Matthew Marlovitz, ranked 66th in Team Game out of 454 teams 

December 1 Our fall CS seminar series concluded with great security-related talks by external speakers: Dr. David Mohaisen from University of Central Florida and Dr. Shelia Kennison from Oklahoma State University. 

November 15 Congratulations to Dr. Mohammed Abuhamad for his NSF award, "Education DCL: EAGER: Developing Experiential Cybersecurity and Privacy Training for AI Practitioners", to host multiple workshops for AI practitioners. https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2335700&HistoricalAwards=false 

November 4 Josh Honig (captain), Eno Dynowski, Taryn Chovan, Madeline Moran, Sophia Homan, and Amy Kuhl participated in the DoE Cyberforce competition. The team ranked 17th out of 95 teams. Congrats! 

September 22 A red team from Loyola participated in the Hack the Hospital competition, represented by Josh Honig (captain), Eno Dynowski, Nathan Ferrell, Amy Kuhl, and Sophia Homan. 

June 9 Poster accepted and presented at the NCAE symposium. 

May 19 Two papers presented at IEEE SVCC 2023 

May 10 Congratulations to Erin Robertson, National Cyber Scholars 2023 - https://www.nationalcyberscholarship.org/winners-2023 

April 22 Congrats to Eno Dynowski for his Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award!Madeline Moran and Maddie Juarez also presented a poster each at the URES 2023. 

April 15 A team from Loyola participated in the National Cyber League Spring 23 season.Well done to Eliora Horst, Katherine Lieber, Madeline Moran, Erin Robertson, Amy Kuhl, Nathan Ferrell, Kenneth Hernandez! 

April 7 Team from Loyola participated in the Hack the Hospital Qualifying and qualified for the finals!Participants: Eno Dynowski, Josh Honig, Amy Kuhl, Kenneth Hernandez, William Mack 

April 6 Congrats to Nimra Khan and Taryn Chovan for being awarded the Scholarship for Women Studying Information Security 

April 1 Participation in NCAE CyberGames MidwestParticipants: Madeline Moran, Yehudah David, Nathan Ferrell, Erin Robertson, Eliora HorstMVP: Eliora HorstMost Improved: Yehudah David 

February 18 Loyola University Chicago participated in the state CCDC (Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition on February 18. This is the first time Loyola has participated in CCDC. Ramblers participating were Eno Dynowski (captain), Josh Honig, William Mack, Robert Bitunjac, Kenneth Hernandez, Amy Kuhl, Erik Pautsch, and Taryn Chovan. The team did well and showed good performance for a new team.

December 9, 2022 Loyola University Chicago participated in the National Cyber League Fall 2022 season. The university, as a whole, ranked 84th overall and 64th for CAE colleges. The best team from Loyola, comprised of Eno Dynowski, Taha Siddiqui, Amy-Lauren Kuhl, Robert Bitunjac, William Mack, Yuxin Chen, and Jess Bajerek, scored 1430 points! (the team ranked 100th out of 3,900 teams scored 1440 points)

November 19, 2022 Loyola University Chicago participated in the Global Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition (CPTC). The team at Loyola consisted of Eno Dynowski, William Mack, Robert Bitunjac, Kenneth Hernandez, Josh Honig, and Emily Meister.

November 9, 2022 A team of students participated in the Department of Energy CyberForce Competition on November 4-5, 2022. The team led by team captain Josh Honig ranked 24th overall and 1st in GreenTeam scoring out of over 150 teams/universities. Congratulations to Josh Honig, Madeline Moran, Taryn Chovan, Amy Kuhl, Jess Bajerek, and Kenneth Hernandez!

September 29, 2022 Congrats to Madeline Moran, Amy Kuhl, Erin Robertson, Kenneth Hernandez, and Nathan Ferrell for being selected as the 2022-2023 Motorola Solutions Foundation Cybersecurity Experiential Scholars! This program, led by Dr. Eric Chan-Tin, introduces students to hands-on cybersecurity practice and research. #MotoSolutionsCares

September 24, 2022 Anne Wagner and Rachel Gordon attended Grace Hopper Celebration 2022!

August 1, 2022 Loyola University Chicago participated in the 2022 CAE-NCX competition from April 11 to April 13. Loyola ranked 1st in the Software Development Module. Congrats to Haris Qazi, Madeline Moran, Eno Dynowski, William Mack, Robert Bitunjac, Kenneth Hernandez, Josh Honig, Laura Adams, Tim Abbenhaus, and Jack Hightower! Go Ramblers!

July 8, 2022 Loyola University Chicago participated in the National Cyber League Spring 2022 season. The university ranked #55 overall, out of over 500 colleges and universities. In the Team game, ForSociety (Nickolas Kusman, Haris Qazi, Pablo Czutrin, Jackson West, Collin Jones, Vasil Mitrev, Jack Hightower) ranked #76 with 2065/3000 points. Congratulations to all students who participated! Go Ramblers! To learn more about the National Cyber League and rankings for the season, please visit their website.

July 7, 2022 Loyola University Chicago was officially recognized as having been designated as a DHS/NSA National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense at a designation ceremony at NICE 2022, on June 8 2022.

May 17, 2022 Congratulations to Madeline Moran for being recognized as a 2022 recipient of the Loyola Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award.

March 18, 2022 Madeline Moran, a junior majoring in cybersecurity and computer science, and Eliora Horst, a MS student in computer science, attended the Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) 2022 in Cleveland, Ohio. Pictured are Eliora in front of her poster "Where in the World is SHA-3?" and Madeline.

February 28, 2022 A team from Loyola University Chicago participated in the NCAE Cyber Games - Midwest Regionals on Saturday February 19. Although Loyola did not qualify for the finals, the team placed second in the CTF category. Congratulations to Madeline Moran, Kenneth Hernandez, Patrycja Dabrowska, Hannah Traud, and Chris Flores! Madeline was named MVP and Patrycja was most-improved player. Preparation for this competition is made possible through a grant from the Motorola Solutions Foundation. #MotorolaSolutionsCares

February 1, 2022 Congratulations to Daisy Reyes for receiving an Honorable Mention at the CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Research Awards. https://cra.org/about/awards/outstanding-undergraduate-researcher-award/

December 17, 2021 Loyola University Chicago is one of 84 colleges and universities selected to partner with the United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) Academic Engagement Network (AEN) across our enterprise, which includes USCYBERCOM Headquarters, Joint Force HQ-DODIN, the Cyber National Mission Force, Air Force Cyber Command/16th Air Force, Army Cyber Command/ 2nd Army, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command, and the U.S. Coast Guard Cyber Command. The USCYBERCOM AEN consists of 70 universities, 14 community colleges, 4 Service Academies, and 4 Federal Graduate-level Colleges. https://www.cybercom.mil/Media/News/Article/2889614/cybercom-announces-academic-engagement-network-partners/

December 14, 2021 The National Cyber League Power Rankings for Fall 2021 are out! Loyola University Chicago ranked 46th overall, 15th in the Central Region, and 30th in CAE schools. In the Team game, we ranked 91st out of 3910 teams. Our best team, consisting of Haris Qazi, Jalan Cruz, Pablo Czutrin, Collin Jones, and Nickolas Kusman, scored 2325/3000 points! In the Individual game, the top 5 students were Haris Qazi, Jalan Cruz, Anthony Skinner, Vasil Mitrev, and Martin Zugschwert. Haris scored 2385/3000 points and ranked 139th out of 6478 participants. Congrats to all!

December 9, 2021 Eric Chan-Tin gave an overview of Loyola University Chicago for the "Getting to Know your Fellow CAEs" at the CAE Community of Practice (CoP) in Cyber Defense.

December 7, 2021 Three student teams from Loyola University Chicago participated in the metaCTF Cybergames during the weekend of December 4. Congrats to Eno Dynowski, William Mack, Robert Bitunjac, Haris Qazi, Pablo Czutrin, and Nickolas Kusman! Team Lactose Intolerant was ranked 84 in the student category and 177 overall. Team LUC was ranked 105 in the student category and 217 overall. Team Like Scoobs, we just got hacked! was ranked 347 in the student category and 725 overall. There were 1022 student teams and 1922 teams in total. Loyola University Chicago ranked 35th overall among all schools

December 7, 2021 We are happy to announce the five scholars of the cybersecurity experiential scholarships. From left to right, Madeline Moran, Patryjca Dabrowska, Hannah Traud, Kenneth Hernandez, and Chris Flores. This is made possible through a grant from the Motorola Solutions Foundation. #MotoSolutionsCares

November 22, 2021 Loyola University Chicago participated in the DoE CyberForce competition on Saturday November 13. The team consisting of Haris Qazi (team captain), Jalan Cruz, Nick Kusman, and Pablo Czutrin, was ranked 71st out of 120 teams. Congrats to the whole team!

October 29, 2021 Meredith Kasper, pen-test manager at Hurricane Labs, will present at Loyola University Chicago at 4:30pm. The talk will be livestreamed on Zoom. The talk will cover her experience in cybersecurity, what she does as a cybersecurity professional, and other fun cybersecurity stories.

 October 26, 2021 Shafia Zubair, Manager of Information Security at Morningstar, will speak at Loyola about "Career in Cybersecurity: Is it right for me?". The talk will be livestreamed via Zoom at 4:00pm.

October 19, 2021 FBI Supervisory Special Agent Bixby will discuss cybersecurity at the FBI at 4:30pm in Dumbach 228. There will also be a livestream on Zoom.

October 4, 2021 Eric Chan-Tin gave a talk at the CISSE 2021 to go over the new BS in cybersecurity curriculum at Loyola University Chicago.

September 27, 2021 Loyola University Chicago is thrilled to have received a grant for $25,000 from the Motorola Solutions Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Motorola Solutions. Through the grant, we’ll provide cybersecurity experiential scholarships to five undergraduate students. Learn more. #MotoSolutionsCares

September 23, 2021 Sammy Gorbett, one of our instructors, gave a "Resume Building and Interviewing Skills" presentation at the CAE Midwest hub meeting.

September 1, 2021 Congratulations to George Thiruvathukal and Neil Klingensmith for their new NSF award on enabling computer vision applications at the edge using automated contextual analysis!

July 1, 2021 Congratulations to George Thiruvathukal and Neil Klingensmith for their new NSF award on researching low-power computer vision at the edge!

June 1, 2021 The Spring 2021 season of the National Cyber League has wrapped up. Congratulations to all students who participated. Overall, Loyola ranked 68 overall and ranked 20 in the Central region. For the Individual game, Anthony Skinner and Jalan Cruz ranked 173 and 298 respectively out of 3,301 players. For the Team game, Loyola had four teams participating. The first team consisting of Anthony Skinner and Jalan Cruz ranked 117 out of 922 teams with 2,285/3,000 points. The second team consisting of Gabe Huerta, Nick Kusman, Monica Sieklucki, Yong Shao, Mohammed Saleh, and Muhammad Lodhi ranked 143 out of 922 teams.

May 18, 2021 Congrats to Eno Dynowski for finishing in the top 400 of the Cyber FastTrack CTF competition! Eno was awarded a scholarship for the placement in the competition.

April 21, 2021 Congratulations to Anna Bakas for being recognized as a 2021 recipient of the Loyola Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award!

April 20, 2021 Dr. Polakis, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, wiill give a talk on "Awakening the Web’s Sleeper Agents: Misusing Service Workers for Privacy Leakage".

April 16, 2021 Congratulations to Haris Qazi for placing third at the CYRIN CTF competition! Haris had the third fastest time of competitors from the US and Europe!

January 14, 2021 Daisy Reyes gave a talk at FloCon 2021! Daisy is currently a junior in the B.S. in computer science program and is working on Autonomous Vehicles and Web Privacy.

January 4, 2021 Monica Sieklucki was selected to receive a Research Experience for Master's fellowship for Spring 2021. She is in the M.S. in computer science program, working with Dr. Abuhamad, on adversarial machine learning.

December 2, 2020 Talk "Inside Out: Can Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, or Disgust Affect Your Security?" presented at the CAE forum by Eric Chan-Tin.

November 22, 2020 Congrats to Haris Qazi (team captain), Jalan Cruz, Justin Kim, Anran Wang, Jack West, Mike Robinson, Claudia Holtsclaw, Eno Dynowski, Gabe Huerta, and Titus Filimon for competing in the HTB Uni CTF 2020 competition! Great job!

October 26, 2020 Loyola University Chicago sent 3 teams (virtually) to compete in the MetaCTF CyberGames 2020. Congrats to Justin Kim, Gabe Huerta, Eno Dynowski, Shao Yong, Haris Qazi, Elijah Wooten, Anran Wang, Laura Adams, Tim Abbenhaus, and Duncan Rout! SeaShanty2 ranked 159 (out of 646 active teams) in the student category. The team ranked 254 (out of 995 active teams) overall including non-students teams. LUC ranked 257 in the students' category. The Fighting Mongooses ranked 357 in the students' category. Congrats to all who participated! https://compete.metactf.com/30/scoreboard

October 14, 2020 Cyber Fire Puzzles and Fun event wrapped up with 49 participants and 10 teams. Thank you to Argonne National Lab for hosting. Congrats to Trickbots! Stay tuned for the next cyber event!

July 30, 2020 Some Center for Cyber Security members participated in the AWS Security JAM x WiCyS Beginner and ranked 4th! Congratulations to those who participated.

June 24, 2020 Members of the Center gave the keynote speech on "2020 Vision for Web Privacy" at the ACM 3rd International Workshop on System and Network Telemetry and Analytics (SNTA). A copy of the keynote can be obtained at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXfDsL9_-PE

June 5, 2020 Loyola University Chicago has been designated as an NSA/DHS National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defence (CAE CD)

May 24, 2020 Members of the Center participated in the ATHENA Virtual Lecture Day, hosted by Women in STEM. The lecture was on "Web Privacy".

April 22, 2020 Congratulations to Spencer Johnston and Jackson West for winning the Loyola Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award!

April 21, 2020 Congrats to all students who participated in the National Cyber League competition for Spring 2020. Loyola University Chicago ranked 20th nationally. Special shout-out to "Z and the Big Boys", led by Robert Kania. The team scored 2,440 points and ranked 34 out of 931 teams. Other teams from Loyola University Chicago included BIG BANG, Script Kiddies, FlattenTheCurve2020, and Hacking4Hire. Participating students were Maha Alzanbaqi, Zara Batalvi, Job Coritana, Pablo Czutrin, Kevin Donohue, Meskerem Gebrehiwet, Matthew Hempe, Claudia Holtsclaw, Spencer Johnston, Anthony Kaczkowski, Robert Kania, Saad Khan, Jenet Kolaparan, Joe Mazich, Mustafa Mjawaz, Alec Park, Dipen Patel, Irfan Poljak, Haris Qazi, Mike Robinson, Abdul Salam, Logan Walsh, Michael White.

April 2, 2020 Due to university restrictions on gatherings, this event has been canceled.

November 16, 2019 Loyola University Chicago participates in the DoE CyberForce competition. The team scored over 5,300 points and ranked 2nd (out of 104 teams) in "Operational Support". Students participating were Marcell Gyongy, Claudia Holtsclaw, Hans Johnson, Jessica Medintz, Abdul Salam, and Michael White.

November 13, 2019 Paul Edlund, Chief Technologist at Microsoft, gave a talk to the cybersecurity group at Loyola University Chicago.

October 27, 2019 Congrats to Nick Kolasinski, Michael White, and Gabe Huerta for placing first, second, and third in the National Cyber League (NCL) Fall competition at Loyola!

September 21, 2019 John Mikos, a junior in Computer Science, presented a poster at the STARS Celebration in San Diego, CA!

June 18, 2019 A delegation from the Philippines, consisting of law enforcement, a senator, and a lawyer, visited the cybersecurity center to learn more about the curriculum, research, and possible collaboration.

May 13, 2019 Nine students from Loyola University Chicago (Andrew Wolke, Taryn Chovan, Jessica Medintz, Brian Nguyen, Devin Zayas, Morgan Richardson, Michael Collins, Gabriel Huerta, and Job Coritana) participated in the spring season of the National Cyber League. In the individual game competition, Jessica Medintz ranked 480 out of 1263 competitors in her bracket. In the team game competition, the LUCTF team, consisting of Andrew Wolke, Taryn Chovan, and Jessica Medintz) ranked 144 out of 275 teams.

March 24, 2019 LUCTF participated in the Securinets Prequels 2K19 and placed 218 out of 436.

March 19, 2019 Center for Cybersecurity virtual website is set up.

March 12, 2019 The LUCTF team participated in the TAMU CTF!

February 24, 2019 The team from Loyola University Chicago, LUCTF, ranked 55 out of 539 teams in the MITRE Cyber Challenge 2019. Congrats to Taryn Chovan!