OCTOBER 27, 2020 — Researchers in UTSA’s College of Business Cyber Center for Security and Analytics have partnered with Raytheon Intelligence & Space to study the use of artificial intelligence to detect malicious attacks.
The project, funded by a $447,000 grant from Raytheon Intelligence & Space, is being led by Nicole Beebe, professor and chair of UTSA’s Department of Information Systems and Cyber Security; Paul Rad, associate professor of information systems and cyber security; and Eric Bachura, assistant professor of information systems and cyber security. Luis Selvera, a graduate student, is also assisting with the project.
“Today’s security analysts and threat hunters are overloaded with data and mired down by manual processes,” said Beebe. “Automation, cyber analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and other enabling technologies need to be integrated into current concepts of operations in order to allow them to spend time on higher-priority mission activities. We are very excited to partner with Raytheon to solve these challenging problems.”
“Raytheon Technologies is proud to partner with UTSA’s world-class faculty who will bring cutting-edge artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to tackle urgent cyber challenges facing our nation’s computer systems,” said John DeSimone, vice president of Cyber, Training and Services at Raytheon Technologies. “Our partnership with UTSA demonstrates our commitment to leading innovation and to continued development of expertise for our nation’s cyber workforce.”
Identifying abnormal behavior automatically to detect attacks on systems based on operational system and network logs could function as a powerful proactive security tool, especially during a pandemic, since more people are working remotely online.
The joint research with Raytheon Intelligence & Space resulted in anomaly detection from system and network logs using transformer-based AI system, an automated way of detecting abnormal behavior from log files.
“By combining natural language-based learning models, the anomaly detection framework parses the information stored in log data, learns normal behavior from the parsed log data and detects abnormal behaviors from new log entries,” said Rad.
Building upon previous work conducted by Cyber Center faculty, the team built a natural language processing model for detecting time-series patterns on logs. The model’s architecture consists of three components: parsing, training and detection. Then, the team trained the model using “normal” behavior patterns and known threats for predicting future threats.
“With our language model, we wanted to determine if system log files and network logs could be treated similar to finding misinformation in text files or social networks,” said Rad. “Using transformer models, we learned the distribution of good versus bad behavior, which would almost be undetectable to the human eye.”
In phase 2 of the project, which began this fall, the researchers will expand their approach to multimodal log files and build a federated AI algorithm as well as develop a spectral feature based approach to anomaly detection.
UTSA’s Cyber Center for Security and Analytics conducts high-impact, applied cyber security and data science research, development, operations and training to address imperative societal issues and national challenges.
UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.
This event will acknowledge graduating seniors from the McNair Scholars program at UTSA before inducting the new cohort of scholars into the program.
North Paseo Building (NPB 5.140), Main CampusAt this memorable celebration, UTSA graduates will be introduced one-by-one to cross the stage and accept their doctoral degrees.
Arts Building Recital Hall, Main CampusRoadrunner Walk is an event for graduating students to have a memorable walk on campus to celebrate an important milestone and their achievements. Graduates will walk along the Paseo while being celebrated by the UTSA community, friends, and family members.
Student Union Paseo, Main CampusCelebrate the accomplishments of College of Education and Human Development, College for Health, Community and Policy, College of Sciences and University College.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St.Celebrate the accomplishments of Alvarez College of Business, College of Liberal and Fine Arts and Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St.The University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education .
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to promoting access for all. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.
