Aunshul Rege, Associate Professor, Department of Criminal Justice
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My research focuses on the human and social aspects of cyberattacks and cybersecurity because cybercrime is inherently a social problem. My previous National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research projects examined how cybercriminals organize, make decisions, and adapt as they execute cyberattacks against critical infrastructure (power grids, transportation systems, etc.). We maintain a world-renowned critical infrastructure ransomware incident dataset, which is freely accessible to everyone.
This year, I received a new NSF education grant that focuses on social engineering (SE). Cybercriminals are increasingly using SE, where they manipulate their victims via psychological persuasion techniques. We experience SE almost every day; we’ve all received phishing emails and phone calls that try to get sensitive information from us. So this past summer, the Cybersecurity in Application, Research and Education (CARE) Lab, which I direct, hosted its first SE Competition. High school, undergraduate, and graduate student teams tried their hand at SE in a safe, ethical, and fun way. This event was funded by NSF and sponsored by Google and Duo Security! CISA (DHS) and MITRE ATT&CK representatives also came out to engage with the students!
I hope to demonstrate the relevance of the social sciences in cybersecurity research and education, to build a strong industry-nonprofit-government-academia nexus, and to support diversity, equity and inclusion in cybersecurity. The CARE Lab boasts a list of 228 organizations that strive to make cybersecurity opportunities accessible to everyone. To date this list has been accessed over 17.5K times worldwide!
Bottom line: cybersecurity isn’t optional anymore; it’s for everyone, and we have a lot of work to do. For more information, click here.
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FEATURED PUBLICATION
Sex differences in anxiety and depression: circuits and mechanisms
~Debra Bangasser (Psychology and Neuroscience) and Amelia Cuarenta
Preclinical non-human animal studies are used to identify novel targets for therapeutics and to screen new drugs for their safety and effectiveness prior to administering them to humans. Given the importance of these studies, it may be surprising that only 30% of preclinical studies include female subjects. This systematic ignoring of female biology likely contributes to the fact that women are more likely to have adverse drug reactions than men. This practice is particularly problematic when disorders are known to occur at different rates or present differently in women and men. For example, women are more likely to suffer from major depression and anxiety disorders than men, and women with depression typically have an earlier onset than men. Yet the biological factors that contribute to these differences are understudied. In a recent review published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Dr. Amelia Cuarenta, a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory, and I describe what is known about sex differences in circuits and mechanisms underlying anxiety and depression. We detail how there are different types of sex differences that can have important effects on responding to stress, avoidance, anhedonia, fear processing, and anxiety. We also describe prior work from the laboratory that identified differences in a chemical receptor in the brain that is linked to stress, and detail how this knowledge can be leveraged into better treatments for depression and anxiety disorders. By highlighting preclinical data that compares males and females, we hope to provide a better understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms that contribute to depression and anxiety and help raise awareness about the importance of inclusive data practices for developing new treatments that work for everyone.
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AWARD OF THE MONTH
Featured this month is Christina Rosan, Associate Professor of Geography and Urban Studies. Dr. Rosan has been awarded a $150,000 Smart and Connected Cities planning grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF) entitled, “SCC-PG: Planning for Resilience and Equity through Accessible Community Technology: Developing a Community-Led Planning Tool for Climate Readiness."
Beginning this January, we will be working with Philadelphia community organizations and residents to develop a community data and visualization tool to identify community priorities for climate related infrastructure investments. This builds off of my past community-engaged research (for an EPA STAR grant) developing a Green Stormwater Equity Index (with Megan Heckert) designed to identify areas of the city that most need green stormwater investments. As a Duckworth Digital Scholars Faculty Fellow, I am exploring how to use storytelling, videos, mapping, and other technologies to raise awareness about urban environmental and racial injustice and promote climate investments that address real community needs.
For more information about my research, see https://linktr.ee/tinarosan
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