U . S . N AVA L A C A D E M Y A L U M N I A S S O C I AT I O N A N D F O U N D AT I O N
I M PA C T R E P O R T
2022–2023
CENTER FOR CYBER SECURITY STUDIES 1
LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR The mission of the Center for Cyber Security Studies (CCSS) is to enhance the education of midshipmen in all areas of cyber warfare, to facilitate the sharing of expertise and perspectives in cyber warfare from across the Yard, to provide a streamlined means of identifying priorities, to enhance inter-disciplinary research in cyber warfare, and to disseminate information, harmonize efforts, and shape a common framework for cyber warfare related efforts at USNA. Over the past year the center has seen numerous major achievements by and experiences for our midshipmen and faculty. USNA’s Cyber Security Team (CST) competed in the NSA Codebreaker Challenge, scoring the highest out of all service academies and featuring the only service academy student to complete the entire challenge. The CCSS also led Language, Regional Expertise, and Culture (LREC) trips which traveled to eight countries for various professional development and cultural immersion experiences with a focus on cyber education and training. In addition, 31 midshipmen participated in summer internships in 2023 with organizations such ASRC Federal, AT&T, BAE Systems, CACI International, Clarity Innovations, General Electric (GE) Aviation, Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA), Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Lockheed Martin Corp (LMC), Microsoft Corporation, T. Rowe Price (TRP), NSA, and more. The Cyber Lecture Series continues to attract excellent speakers on current cyber-related topics with an audience of more than 2,000 midshipmen, faculty, staff, and external guests. Over the course of the academic year, the CCSS was also able to bestow three cyber operations majors with graduate scholarship awards. Cyber operations majors also completed yet another excellent capstone cycle, with midshipmen working in small teams to complete a total of 16 impressive projects. Looking forward, as the CCSS continues to grow, we would like to capitalize on our past success by continuing to support the margin of excellence that we have provided thus far. We are regularly looking for opportunities to support Women in Computing and Cybersecurity (WiCC) activities, engagements with recognized cybersecurity experts (both government and otherwise), vendor training for faculty and midshipmen, and classified education and research facility upgrades. Please enjoy reading more about the continued growth of our cyber studies program and the areas in which our midshipmen and faculty excel. Your continued generous support allows us to maintain the center’s mission of enhancing education in all areas of cyber warfare, creating opportunities to share cyber expertise, and increasing the interdisciplinary research at the United States Naval Academy. On behalf of the Center for Cyber Security Studies, thank you for your dedicated support and interest in our program.
Captain Paul J. Tortora ’89, USN (Ret.) Director, Center for Cyber Security Studies, United States Naval Academy
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CONFERENCES AND COMPETITIONS DEFCON 2022 During August 2022, a group of cyber operations majors and faculty members attended DEFCON, one of the world’s largest and most notable hacker conventions. There they attended presentations and workshops on cutting edge hacking technologies as well as networked with other cyber security professionals. While in Las Vegas, NV, for DEFCON, they attended the Cyber Security Women of the Year (CSWY) gala. CSWY awards are tributes to female cybersecurity and privacy professionals leading the industry and making a difference through their work and dedication to a safer digital ecosystem. This year Second Lieutenant Lucy Ackerman ’22, USN, was honored with the Cybersecurity Woman “Raising Star” of the Year 2022 award.
IEEE CONFERENCE Professors William Casey and Tony Melaragno presented at the 20th IEEE International Conference of Dependable Autonomic and Secure Computing that took place in Calabria, Italy, from 12-15 September 2022. They presented two papers; the first titled “Change Point Detection with Machine Learning for Rapid Ransomware Detection” and the second, which was primarily written by former midshipmen Chloe Vonderlinden ’22 and Joe Walton ’22, with Professors Casey and Melaragno titled—“The Visualization of Ransomware Infection.”
NSA CODEBREAKER CHALLENGE USNA’s Cyber Security Team (CST) participated in the NSA Codebreaker Challenge, which provides students with a hands-on opportunity to develop their reverseengineering/low-level code analysis skills while working on a realistic problem set centered around the NSA’s mission. The Naval Academy scored the highest out of all the other service academies and is the only one that had a student complete the entire challenge.
MILCOM 2022 Dr. Dane Brown and Ensign Adrian Schalk ’22, USN, presented a paper titled “Analysis of Vulnerabilities in Satellite Software Bus Network Architecture” at MILCOM 2022 in Washington, DC. This year the theme of MILCOM 2022 was “Transforming Decision Making through Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2),” building technology pillars in secure communications, resilient networks, multi-domain operations, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
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INTERNSHIPS
LANGUAGE, REGIONAL EXPERTISE AND CULTURE (LREC) TRIPS
Thirty-one midshipmen participated in the following 2023 summer internships. Below are the sponsors and the number of midshipmen who participated in each of the internships.
CYBER EUROPE—ESTONIA, POLAND, CZECH REPUBLIC, SPAIN Seven cyber operations midshipmen visited Europe as part of a sweeping, cyber-focused Language, Regional Expertise, and Culture (LREC) trip.
• ASRC Federal, Moorestown, NJ: four midshipmen • AT&T Leesburg, VA: two midshipmen
In the first engagement of the trip, the midshipmen attended the 15th Annual NATO International Conference on Cyber Conflict (CyCon) hosted by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence (CCD COE) in Tallinn, Estonia. USNA cyber operations majors have been attending the annual conference since 2014 and have become a welcome group at each conference. The conference’s theme, “Meeting Reality,” allowed the midshipmen to challenge their assumptions about cyber conflict and associated technologies in general, in addition to their role in peacetime as well as crisis and conflict. The midshipmen observed and participated in presentations from many senior government officials, military members, and cyber security experts including the President of Estonia. The midshipmen had the pleasure of having personal meetings with esteemed individuals like Kemba Walden, the National Cyber director at the White House, Mieke Eoyang, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Cyber Policy, and Admiral Michael Rodgers (Ret.), the former commander of CYBERCOM. Midshipman Traynor noted, “I feel that my perspective on cyber warfare changed significantly in the mere three days I attended the conference. Where I previously viewed cyber as its own distinct mission, I have come to realize its role in preparing for and supporting all domains of warfare.”
• BAE Systems, Nashua, NH: three midshipmen • BAE Systems, Plymouth, NH: one midshipman • CACI International, Reston, VA: two midshipmen • Clarity Innovations, Columbia, MD: one midshipman • General Electric (GE) Aviation, West Chester, OH: two midshipmen • Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA), Alexandria, VA: three midshipmen • Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD: eight midshipmen • Lockheed Martin, Moorestown, NJ: one midshipman • Microsoft, Arlington, VA: two midshipmen • T. Rowe Price, Owings Mills, MD: two midshipmen
THE FOLLOWING NSA INTERNSHIP PROGRAMS TOOK PLACE IN 2023: • 28 rising first class, 35 rising second class, and two summer graduates • Locations: Ft. Meade, MD (and vicinity), NSA Georgia, NSA Utah, NSA Texas, NSA Hawaii, NSA Harrogate, UK.
In between CyCon conference sessions, students had the opportunity to explore some of the historical and cultural aspects of Tallinn, most notably visiting the Soviet Bronze Soldier monument to discuss its importance to cybersecurity and international affairs. This Russian monument and its current location is one reason that the NATO CCD COE is in Estonia. It is commonly believed that Russians, angered by the decision of the Estonian government to move the Soviet statue from a rallying point downtown to a military cemetery outside of the city in 2007, launched a series of cyber attacks against Estonia, prompting the country to bolster its cyber defense and encourage other NATO countries to do the same. In addition to visiting these significant places defining Estonia’s history, midshipmen had the opportunity to explore Tallinn’s well-preserved Old Town, lined with markets, restaurants, and shops.
• National Security Agency Fort Meade: 32 midshipmen • MARFORCYBER: 12 midshipmen • Cyber Command: ten midshipmen • FBI: one midshipman • APL: three midshipmen • US Space Force: one midshipman • NSA Georgia: one midshipman • NSA Texas: one midshipman • NSA Utah: two midshipmen • NSA Hawaii: one midshipman • NSA Harrogate, UK: one midshipman
The next stop on the LREC was to attend the CONFidence Conference in Krakow, Poland. CONFidence is one of the
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and how the CCN operates as part of a larger intelligence organization. The following day, the midshipmen met with the MCCE, its Joint Cyber Command, where they heard presentations from two of the officers in the MCCE. The midshipmen learned about the cyber training pipeline of the MCCE and more about the cyber threat landscape in Spain, including the increase in cyber attacks since Spain assisted Ukraine in its war against Russia. That afternoon, the midshipmen had a meeting at the Spanish Navy headquarters with several Spanish Navy officers and instructors at the Spanish Naval Academy. The first class midshipmen gave a summary of their final capstone projects, and they discussed the general cyber security education at the Naval Academy. Spanish Navy officers presented on cyber education at the Spanish Naval Academy. “Hosting the Naval Academy Midshipmen in Madrid and showing them first-hand diplomacy abroad
“The opportunity to work for CCSS was a great way to conclude my time at USNA and prepare to depart for my initial officer training. I got to see how the summer training program that gave me an interest in my ultimate designator has evolved and worked to develop midshipmen who were in the same position as me two years prior.” – ENS GREGORY SMITH ’23
premier conferences for private side cyber security in the world and hosted well over a thousand attendees and many speakers. At the conference, midshipmen had the chance to learn from experts in the field and engage with the private sector, a rare opportunity for midshipmen at the Naval Academy. The midshipmen attended presentations on wide ranging and relevant topics like generative AI and cryptocurrency tracing. Midshipman Grafov stated, “Hearing from technical experts in a variety of different industries was incredibly interesting, as usually we only see it from a military perspective. The speakers we listened to all came from different cyber backgrounds, often integrating with other fields such as economics.” While in Krakow, the midshipmen had the opportunity to visit several historical and cultural sites, including a sobering trip to Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. These visits helped to put historical events into perspective and reflect on how the U.S. military played a role in these events. Midshipman Wood commented, “One of the most impactful things we did on the trip was visit Auschwitz in Poland. Although I have read many books and done research about the Holocaust, being in the place where so many people were unjustly killed invoked much more emotion than simply just reading about it or looking at photos … The entirety of the day left me feeling that we must take these lessons into the future and never let something like this ever happen again.” The midshipmen then transited to Madrid, Spain, following a brief stop in Prague and the Czech Republic. While in Madrid, the group met with the U.S. Embassy team, the Spanish Navy and various sectors of the Spanish government dealing with cybersecurity and cyber education. At the U.S. Embassy midshipmen met with Captain Manuel Picon ’91, USN, who is the U.S. defense attaché to Spain, and were provided with an overview of U.S. efforts and partnerships with Spain. Later that same day, the midshipmen visited the Centro Criptologico Nacional (CCN), the cybersecurity division of the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI). In this meeting, the midshipmen learned about cyber security threats in Spain
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JAPAN AND KOREA Commander Phil Starcovic, USN, and Lieutenant Norman Overfield ’14, USNR, led a group of eight midshipman on an LREC trip to Japan and Korea in July and August 2023. The midshipmen were able to discuss pressing cybersecurity issues with leaders in academia, military, government, and industry. Japanese organizations visited included the National Defense Academy (service academy for all of their defense force branches), Cyber Protection Team 555 (U.S. Navy), Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) Cyber Defense Command, Digital Agency, the National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity, the University of Tokyo, and NTT Corporation (Japan’s largest telecommunications provider). At NTT, the midshipmen sat down with Mr. Shinichi Yokohama, the CEO of NTT Security, to discuss the latest threats in cyberspace. Organizations in Korea included the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the Korea Internet and Security Agency (KISA) (pictured below), Samsung Electronics, Korea University’s School of Cybersecurity, and Republic of Korea Cyber Command (ROKCC), where the midshipmen received a brief and Q+A session from ROKCC’s commander, Rear Admiral Park, and covered topics ranging from training the force, retaining talent, and cyber defense exercises.
and the importance and value of international relations will undoubtedly prepare them better as future naval officers and representatives of the United States,” said Captain Picon. The final stop of the LREC was to El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain, located next to the Spanish Navy Base in Rota, which hosts four U.S. Navy destroyers and much of the Spanish Fleet. The midshipmen received an overview of the Spanish Navy and Marine Corps, and toured the Spanish Navy’s damage control and aviation training facilities, noting the similarities and differences between the Spanish and U.S. Navy’s training programs, ships, and aircraft. The midshipmen also spent an afternoon with the U.S. Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station Atlantic detachment in Rota, which oversees the NIPRNET and SIPRNET in the region. They were able to get a first-hand view of U.S. cybersecurity efforts for forward deployed units and commands. This stop in Southern Spain was especially important to the midshipmen because Rota Naval Base is home to four U.S. Navy forward-deployed destroyers and many of the midshipmen will be stationed there or likely visit at some point in their Naval careers. In addition to their professional engagements in the area, the midshipmen visited several cultural and historical activities in the area, the castle where Christopher Columbus planned one of his voyages, and a day-trip across the Straight of Gibraltar to Tangiers, Morocco, where the group rode camels, saw North African culture up close, and enjoyed Moroccan cuisine.
Outside of the office, the midshipmen experienced the challenging hike to the summit of Japan’s Mt. Fuji, taking seven hours to reach the top after gaining more than 4,800 feet in elevation. In Korea, they toured the world’s only De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) between South and North Korea and attended a professional baseball game.
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ENGLAND
interact with Israeli cadets, participate in surface and subsurface training simulators, and tour their campus. During this time, midshipmen completed a one-credit course through the Tel Aviv University (TAU) on Israeli National Cybersecurity Strategy as well as attended a cyber threat brief by the world-class cybersecurity company, Check Point Software Technologies, and visited an Israeli Cyber Startup (ZeroNetworks), which is focused on microsegmentation and staffed by former ISNU 8200 members.
Captain Paul Tortora and Lieutenant Commander Joseph Hatfield, USN, Ph.D., led a group of eight midshipmen on an LREC trip to England, visiting London, Portsmouth, Bletchley Park, Oxford, and Cambridge. The midshipmen heard from some of the foremost leaders and experts from government, intelligence, military, academia, and commercial cyber sectors. The group attended site visits and briefs with the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre, the British Broadcast Corporation, and Portsmouth Naval Base. Visits to historical and cultural sites were also included, ranging from the Imperial War Museum, HMS Victory, and the Cambridge University historical library.
ISRAEL Midshipmen attending the 2023 LREC to Israel embarked on a cultural immersion trip specifically tailored to Israel’s culture and unique cyber challenges. Starting with Cyber Week on the Tel Aviv University (TAU) campus, they heard from world cyber leaders including the IDF J6, the head of Interpol’s Cyber Crime section, U.S. CISA leaders and breakout sessions on specific topics such as the war in Ukraine. The group also attended B-Side TLV—a smaller and more technical cyber conference also held at TAU with emerging technical leaders presenting research and cyber TTPs in a public forum. The midshipmen embarked on various trips within the country including United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) heritage sites in Masada and Tel Aviv; a guided tour of historic religious sites in Jerusalem that included the entry via the water tunnels, a tour of the City of David, the Temple Mount, the Golden Mosque, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher; and traditional neighborhood markets, local foods and desserts, and museums that included the ANU Cultural Heritage Museum. They also traveled to Haifa to visit the Israeli Naval Academy and
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CYBER LECTURE SERIES
2023 CAPSTONE PROJECTS
The Cyber Lecture Series brings in highly accomplished leaders from across the Department of Defense, U.S. government, private industry, and much more to enhance the Brigade’s education in a variety of topics related to cyber warfare and cyber security. Recent speakers have included:
The 59 cyber majors in the Class of 2023 worked in small teams to complete a total of 16 projects. Midshipmen presented their projects on Capstone Day in spring 2023 on 3 May 2023, which took place in Alumni Hall as a normal event post COVID. The capstone projects reflected the interdisciplinary nature of the major, ranging from policy to technical to the social sciences in order to solve real-world problems. The following projects represent the cyber operations majors.
• Ms. Nicole Perlroth (Bestselling author of This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends and a member of CISA’s Advisory Committee), 5 OCT 2022
AY23 PROJECTS
• Major General Ryan Heritage, USMC (commander, Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command/Marine Corps Forces Space Command/JTF-ARES), 15 NOV 2022
• Framework for the Application of Augmented Reality • Establishing a National K-6 Education Framework on Digital Literacy
• Vice Admiral Craig Clapperton (commander, Fleet Cyber Command/Commander, Tenth Fleet), 31 JAN 2023
• Vulnerability Analysis on NASA’s GMSEC System • NATO Critical Infrastructure Cyber Defense • The Shadow Wars: Locating Disinformation Centers of Gravity
• Mr. Kevin Mandia (CEO, Mandient at Google Cloud), 29 MAR 2023
• Analyzing and Reverse Engineering Ransomware
CENTER FOR CYBER SECURITY STUDIES AWARDS
• Perception Versus Reality: End Users’ Practice of Security Technologies on Modern Software • Adversarial Knapsack and Secondary Effects of Common Information in Network Control Games
MIDSHIPMAN AWARDS Immediate Graduate Education Program (IGEP) Selectees:
• Machine Learning Algorithms and Visual Analysis
• Ensign Ben Kwong ’23, USN: Rhodes Scholarship, Oxford University, MSc Sustainability, Enterprise, and the Environment and MSc Energy Systems
• China’s Sphere of Influence: An Evaluation of Content on TikTok and Douyin • Twitter, Emojis, and NLP: Detection of Influence Campaigns Through Machine Learning
• Ensign Brian Palacios Paz ’23, USN: School-Directed Funding, Columbia University, Master of International Affairs
• Solution Stack Analysis for Malware Distribution Networks
• Ensign Phillip Roach ’23, USN: USNA Bi-Lateral Agreement, Carnegie Mellon University, M.S. Information Technology Strategy
• Survey on the State of Cyber Education in the United States • Remote Patient Monitoring: Pentesting a Telehealth Provider
“After an unfortunate hip fracture prematurely ended my rowing career plebe year, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my newfound free time. Thankfully, I found the Cyber Security Team and was graciously welcomed by the coaches and senior team members. Looking back now on my nearly four-year membership with the team, the training and experience I gained there were invaluable to my designation as a Cyber Warfare Engineer (CWE) upon commissioning. Thank you, CST, for all the wonderful learning opportunities!”
• A Machine Learning Approach to Performance Optimization in Collegiate Women’s Rugby • Digital Identification
– ENS TREVOR PEITZMAN ’23
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HOPPER HALL
“I received my own saving grace to commissioning via amazing mentors in the cyber science department and computer science department. They gave me the chance to apply for Cyber Warfare Engineer (CWE) when I thought my commission options had run out. Through them, I was put in touch with LCDR Robinson in CCSS, who set me up for success with only a month to prepare. Through the sole efforts of the CCSS at the Academy, I was able to commission as a CWE. Meeting the people in the computer science and cyber departments and CCSS changed my life for the better in every way possible!”
CCSS has had many foreign and U.S. visitors to Hopper Hall to see the state-of-the-art facility and understand how USNA approaches cyber education. Notable visitors included: • Mr. and Mrs. Martin Roesch (founder of Snort) • Rear Admiral Jude Terry (UK Directory, Personnel and Training) • Rear Admiral Kyu-Paek Park (Commander of Republic of Korea Cyber Operations Command) • Dmitri Alperovitch (co-founded and became chief technology officer of CrowdStrike)
– ENS MICHAEL SCHAEFER ’23
FUTURE PLANS AND LOOKING FORWARD As CCSS continues to grow, we would like to capitalize on our past success by continuing to support the margin of excellence that we have provided thus far. We are regularly looking for opportunities to support Women in Computing and Cybersecurity (WiCC) activities, engagements with recognized cybersecurity experts (both government and otherwise), vendor training for faculty and midshipmen, and classified education and research facility upgrades.
THANK YOU
Thank you for your support of the Naval Academy’s Center for Cyber Security Studies. The midshipmen, faculty, and staff of the CCSS benefit from the philanthropy that make these experiences and research possible. Your contributions bring transformative opportunities to the Yard and help the Naval Academy be a leading institution in cyber security education.
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