Charlie Obimbo

The primary focus of my research is Computer Systems Security and Intrusion Detection & Prevention Systems. We aim to create effective Systems which are able to detect and protect Network Intrusions effectively and in reasonable time. This is an important area in Computer Security as made evident by, recent events in the news, including, the recent heist of over 80 million US dollars from a number of banks in South Africa by over 100 people in Japan through ATMs and the alleged meddling in the recent US elections, by the hacking into and releasing of the DNC email. With customers of banks and various entities feeling vulnerable, consumer confidence is bound to go down and this can adversely affect the economy worldwide.

Our main current focus has been using AI classification methods such as Support Vector Machines, Deep Learning and k-nearest neighbours to enable us classify network payloads so as to help a-priori detection and prevention of malicious payloads on the network. Our other focus is data encryption and cryptanalysis, which is an important aspect right now, especially with the ubiquitous use of mobile devices, and the attempt, both by Federal agents and Criminals to hack and have back-doors to our devices (whether for purposes of security or malice). The third aspect of our research is using differential privacy (epsilon-differential privacy) to ensure continued privacy and anonymity when large datasets are used from individual data in Research.