NCSU SoS Lablet Quarterly Executive Summary

A. Fundamental Research
High level report of result or partial result that helped move security science forward-- In most cases it should point to a "hard problem". These are the most important research accomplishments of the Lablet in the previous quarter.

We continued to produce science of security outcomes. The following are the major contributions from Lablet projects.

• We improved and evaluated a hybrid machine learning approach for attack detection in container-based systems, showing how to reduce false positives while maintaining the detection rate of previous approaches.
• We developed techniques for analyzing mobile app reviews that seek to identify their underlying story structures. We showed empirically how searching for app reviews based on these story structures can better help address developer goals of understanding user expectations, identifying app problems, and retaining users.
• We analyzed the qualitative data gathered from interviews with cybersecurity experts and produced publication guidelines for security research that meets broad standards of scientific rigor.

B. Community Engagement(s)
Research interaction in the community including workshops, seminars, competitions, etc.

We brought up the Science of Security in a variety of fora, including

• A multidisciplinary symposium we co-organized on Embedding AI in Society in which security concerns were a component.
• Discussions with non-lablet colleagues locally and at other universities.
• Engagement with a local startup, Airgap Inc., regarding security in convergent Information Technology/Operational Technology networks for secure manufacturing.

C. Educational Advances
Impact to courses or curriculum at your school or elsewhere that indicates an increased training or rigor in security research.