I'm a research professor with over 20 years of experience using the newest education methods as a challenge and competency-based learning applied in network and cybersecurity courses. During this time, I taught at public and private Engineering Universities in Brazil, Mexico, and the United States, where I had the opportunity to create and teach classic courses, such as Cyber Security Foundations and Networking, and the newest techniques, for example, Cyber Security Systems Engineering and Computational Intelligence. A differential of these courses is the used approach, based on challenge and competency-based learning, where the students are conducted not only for the topics but also to acquire competencies through the solution of fundamental and essential problems in their community; the result is students engaged in things that change their realities. Also, I was responsible for designing and evaluating course plans in engineering careers (computer science, transportation, and system engineering), including adapting the syllabus to move to an asynchronous model.
In addition, I have outstanding research in cyber security applied in air transportation and military systems. An important project was the participation in the Anytime Reasoning and Analysis for Kill-Web Negotiation and Instantiation across Domains – ARAKNID (DARPA Project), where I had the opportunity to design the integration of the Hierarchical Task Network (HTN) planning rules engine with the probabilistic reasoning module, previous invented by Mason faculty (Dr. Laskey and Dr. Costa). Using semantic inference and formal methods, I proposed an innovative verification and validation process for HTN rules within the ARAKNID project. Another project was the development of and integration of the cyber domain in the GMU/ITA C2 Collaborative Research Testbed, which allowed the simulation and evaluation of military campaigns in cyber and physical fields (Army, Navy, and Air Force) through a distributed simulation environment located in two different sites (Brazil and U.S.A.).
I developed a framework (Cyber-Argus) to measure the operational impacts throw information from the cyber sensors, enabling a military commander to simulate multiple course-of-actions in a holistic perspective. This framework generated several peer-reviewed papers in prestigious venues, such as the Journal of Computer Networks (in 2019). It is also the basis of the current DALNIM Project (Dependency-Based Assessment of Litigious Network Events) led by CYSE and C4I & Cyber Center Faculty. Finally, I was engaged in further research to develop solutions to protect the authentication of the ADS-B protocol.
I was the Deputy Director of Research & Development of the Brazilian Air Space Control Institute, where I managed multidisciplinary activities and designed the main research directions for the Aerospace Control Department (DECEA / Brazilian Air Force - BAF), conducting partnerships with Government Agencies (Secretary of Brazilian Civil Aviation - SAC), Companies (Boeing, SAAB, and others), and Brazilian and international Universities (GMU, ITA, USP, UNB, and others). The above set of research resulted in a patent, many publications, and some Ph.D. and MSc. theses.
Also, I'm a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the Brazilian Air Force, with over 30 years of experience managing projects and teams in the Government and Private Sector (utility industry, defense, aviation, and IT in general). I managed IT, telecom, and security to provide essential Brazilian Air Traffic Control services and Air Defense (Brazilian World Cup). Finally, I possess management skills and qualities such as initiative, leadership, resilience, team spirit, excellent interpersonal relationships, and innovation. The ease of overcoming adversities and facing challenges is also a striking feature of my work.
2013
Dissertation topic: Cyber-ARGUS-A mission assurance framework.
2006
Thesis topic: Key Exchange Protocol for VoiP Security.
2007
1995
Courtesy Affiliation
Courtesy Affiliation
The central area of my research is the cyber impact assessment on the mission, with a particular focus on decision support, complex simulation, and multi-source data fusion in the aviation and defense domain. Also, I am starting new research about identifying new security models and threats applied to drone environments.
At present, I am working on or interested in:
The Salomon project spawned from collaboration between the GMU C4I Center and the Brazilian Institute to Air Space Control (ICEA, from its Portuguese acronym). It involves three main research thrusts encompassing the areas of cyberwarfare, artificial intelligence, operations research, and gaming and simulation:
The project involves developing a common simulation/emulation environment that allows for synergistic, intertwined research of the above topics. For example, results of research on new types of attacks against an ADS-B network (cyber domain) would have its impact on an air traffic control operation systematically evaluated, while providing controllers and supervisors with a hands-on experimentation on how to perceive and react to that new attack. Impact assessment also leverages from the development of an ontology-based framework in which cyber and physical behaviors are integrated in a consolidated view, using a combination of open standards protocols and semantic technologies. This framework employs both real elements (e.g. ADS-B radios, air traffic controllers, radar feeds) with virtual ones, provides an innovative approach to addressing the difficulties in correlating cyber and physical behaviors in an integrated view, thus allowing for real-time analysis and direct application in training and evaluation.
The GMU / ITA C2 Testbed is a partnership established between George Mason University (GMU) and Aeronautics Institute of Technology –Brazil (ITA), which aims to create an environment that supports C2 research by providing a Modeling and Simulation Environment for C2 Planning, Security Issues, and Cyber Warfare. This environment uses several COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) tools and Open Standards that provide a rapid prototyping and modeling environment for C2 missions. The Testbed supported different Ph.D. projects, such as demonstrating operational concepts to real operators from the Brazilian Air Force.
Cyber-ARGUS is a Command and Control (C2) support system comprised of tools that provide a coherent and consistent mapping between the two domains. Relevant information about the nodes of a cyberinfrastructure supporting an operation is stored in a knowledge base and then used to build a Bayesian Network that provides impact assessment. This environment was integrated with the real Air Traffic Management (ATM) system used by the Brazilian Air Force. It enabled the evaluation of the operational impacts in real air traffic control missions. It used an internal budget from Brazilian Air Force, around a million dollars, and engaged 2 Ph.D., 2 MSc, and 2 Engineers.
Elsevier Journal of Network and Computer Applications (Technical Reviewer)
Elsevier International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection (Technical Reviewer)
Elsevier Transportation Engineering (Technical Reviewer)
IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC) (Technical Reviewer and Session Chair)
This course provides a foundation for building secure software by applying security principles to the software development lifecycle. Topics covered include security in requirements engineering, secure designs, risk analysis, threat modeling, defensive coding, testing, and security assessment. The course also covers different technologies for assessing system vulnerabilities, showing how to handle each situation during the system's lifecycle by applying software engineering concepts to cybersecurity. In this course, students are confronted with real situations, exploiting their critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities using the foundations learned in class. This course may interest students specializing in software aspects of cybersecurity engineering. This course requires understanding Object-oriented Modeling and Design concepts and at least one programming language (Java, C++, Python, etc.).
The Cyber Security Engineering Fundamentals (CYSE 550) is an introductory graduate course and aims to provide the required foundations for completing the MS CYSE program. The course introduces key subjects in the area, as cyber security problems in engineering. Topics include but are not limited to Cryptography foundations; system and network security; authentication and authorization protocols; advanced threats; vulnerability assessment; and risk assessment principles. In this course, students are confronted with real situations, exploiting their critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities using the foundations learned in class. The target audience consists of engineers who want to expand their skill sets to better align with the demands of current cybersecurity jobs and those who intend to work on cybersecurity research.
This course addresses cybersecurity from the standpoint of systems engineers. It introduces core principles for designing and managing resilient and robust systems by understanding how to incorporate security into a system lifecycle. Topics include but are not limited to system assurance, security design, threat modeling, security testing, and Secure Lifecycle Development Framework (SDLC). The course also covers different technologies for assessing system vulnerabilities, showing how to handle each situation during the system's lifecycle by applying engineering concepts to cybersecurity. In this course, students are confronted with real situations, exploiting their critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities using the foundations learned in class. The target audience consists of engineers who want to expand their skill sets to better align with the demands of current cybersecurity jobs and those who intend to work on cybersecurity research. Cybersecurity professionals would also benefit from the course by being exposed to a systems engineering, holistic perspective on cybersecurity design, development, and management. Therefore, a strong skill is required, at least in one programming language (Java, C++, Python, etc.).
1. S. MATSUMOTO, A. BARRETO, P. C. G. COSTA, B. BENYO, M. ATIGHETCHI, and D. JAVORSEK. Dynamic Explanation of Bayesian Networks with Abductive Bayes Factor Qualitative Propagation and Entropy-Based Qualitative Explanation. 2021 IEEE 24th International Conference on Information Fusion (FUSION), 2021, pp. 1-9, doi: 10.23919/FUSION49465.2021.9626961
2. CRESPO, ANTONIO MARCIO FERREIRA ET AL. Learning framework for carbon emissions predictions incorporating a RReliefF driven features selection and an iterative neural network architecture improvement. SN Applied Sciences, v. 3, n. 4, p. 1-18, 2021.
3. D. V. LEITE, L. WEIGANG, A. B. BARRETO AND A. M. F. CRESPO. Computational Solution to Prevent Aeronautics Accidents Cause by Wake Turbulence Using Machine Learning. IECON 2020 The 46th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Singapore, Singapore, 2020, pp. 124-129, DOI: 10.1109/IECON43393.2020.9255032.
4. DOMINICE, ALEXANDRE, et al. SIAD-AERO: A New Methodology for the Inspection of Energy Assets. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Symposium on High Voltage Engineering. Springer International Publishing, 2019. p. 243-252.
5. BARRETO, ALEXANDRE B.; COSTA, PAULO CG. Cyber-ARGUS-A mission assurance framework. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, v. 133, p. 86-108, 2019.
6. BARRETO, ALEXANDRE B. ET AL. Smart-Grid Assets Inspections-Enabling the Smart Cities Infrastructure. In: 2018 International Conference on Computational Science and Computational Intelligence (CSCI). IEEE, 2018. p. 531-536.
7. BONOMO, I. RAMOS, I. MONTEIRO, L., BORGES, V. WEIGANG, L. BASSETO, C., BARRETO, A.B. Development of SWIM Registry for Air Traffic Management with the Blockchain Support. In: 2018 IEEE 21st International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 2018, Maui. 2018 IEEE 21st International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 2018 (forthcoming).
8. KACEM, THABET; WIJESEKERA, DUMINDA; COSTA, PAULO; BARRETO, ALEXANDRE B. Extending ADS-B for Mixed Urban Air Traffic. In: 2018 IEEE/AIAA 37th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC), 2018, London. 2018 2018 IEEE/AIAA 37th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC).
9. KACEM, THABET; WIJESEKERA, DUMINDA; COSTA, PAULO; BARRETO, ALEXANDRE B. Secure ADS-B framework ADS-BSec. In: 2016 IEEE 19th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 2016, Rio de Janeiro. 2016 IEEE 19th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 2016. p. 2681.
10. MONTEIRO, MARCIO; SARMENTO, THALYSSON; BARRETO, ALEXANDRE; COSTA, PAULO; HIEB, MICHAEL. An integrated mission and cyber simulation for Air Traffic Control. In: 2016 IEEE 19th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 2016, Rio de Janeiro. 2016 IEEE 19th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC). p. 2687.
11. MONTEIRO, M.; SARMENTO, T.; BARRETO, ALEXANDRE; COSTA, P.C. A Holistic Approach to Evaluate Cyber Threat. In: STIDS 2016 - Semantic Technology for Intelligence, Defense, and Security, 2016, Fairfax. Proceedings of the Eleventh Conference on Semantic Technology for Intelligence, Defense, and Security, 2016. p. 64-68.
12. MONTEIRO, M.; BARRETO, A.; KACEM, T.; CARVALHO, J.; WIJESEKERA, D.; COSTA, P. Detecting malicious ADS-B broadcasts using wide area multilateration. In: 2015 IEEE/AIAA 34th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC), 2015, Prague. 2015 IEEE/AIAA 34th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC). p. 4A3-1.
13. MONTEIRO, M.; BARRETO, A.; KACEM, T.; WIJESEKERA, D.; COSTA, P.C. Detecting malicious ADS-B transmitters using a low-bandwidth sensor network. In: 2015 18th International Conference on Information Fusion (Fusion), 2015, Washington. 2015 18th International Conference on Information Fusion (Fusion), 2015. p. 1696-1701.
14. KACEM, THABET; WIJESEKERA, DUMINDA; COSTA, PAULO; CARVALHO, JERONYMO; MONTEIRO, MARCIO; BARRETO, ALEXANDRE. Key distribution mechanism in secure ADS-B networks. In: 2015 Integrated Communication, Navigation, and Surveillance Conference (ICNS), 2015, Herdon. 2015 Integrated Communication, Navigation and Surveillance Conference (ICNS), 2015. p. P3-1-P3-13.
15. MONTEIRO, G. S.; BARRETO, A.; OLIVEIRA, J. M. P.; COSTA, I. C. Uma abordagem para inclusão de segurança na descrição semântica de serviços Web no contexto do SISCEAB. In: XVII Simpósio de aplicações operacionais em áreas de defesa, 2015, São José dos Campos. XVII Simpósio de aplicações operacionais em áreas de defesa, 2015. p. 28-33.
16. KACEM, THABET; CARVALHO, JERONYMO; WIJESEKERA, DUMINDA; COSTA, PAULO; MONTEIRO, MÁRCIO; BARRETO, ALEXANDRE. Risk-adaptive Engine for Secure ADS-B Broadcasts. In: SAE 2015 AeroTech Congress & Exhibition, 2015.
17. KACEM, THABET; WIJESEKERA, DUMINDA; COSTA, PAULO; CARVALHO, JERONYMO; MONTEIRO, MARCIO; BARRETO, ALEXANDRE. Secure ADS-B design & evaluation. In: 2015 IEEE International Conference on Vehicular Electronics and Safety (ICVES), 2015, Yokohama. 2015 IEEE International Conference on Vehicular Electronics and Safety (ICVES), 2015. p. 213.
18. BARRETO, A.B.; COSTA, P. C. G.; HIEB, M. Cyber-Argus: Modeling C2 Impacts of Cyber Attacks. In: 19th ICCRTS, 2014, Alexandria. 19th ICCRTS. Washington, DC: CCRP, 2014.
19. COSTA, I. C.; MONTEIRO, G. S.; de Barros Barreto, A.; OLIVEIRA, J. M. Uma Proposta de Arquitetura baseada no SWIM para a implementação do Airport-CDM. In: Simpósio de Aplicações Operacionais em Áreas de Defesa, 2014, São José dos Campos. Simpósio de Aplicações Operacionais em Áreas de Defesa, 2014. p. 119-124.
20. KACEM, T.; WIJESEKERA, D.; COSTA, P.C.; BARRETO, A.B. Security Requirements Analysis of ADS-B Networks. In: STIDS 2014 Semantic Technology for Intelligence, Defense, and Security, 2014, Fairfax. STIDS 2014 Semantic Technology for Intelligence, Defense, and Security, 2014. v. 1304. p. 40-47.
21. COSTA, I. C.; BARRETO, A.B.; OLIVEIRA, J. M. Service selection approach for swim consumer application based on semantic annotations in SOAML architecture. In: Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC), 2014, Colorado Springs. Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC), 2014. p. 8B2-1-8B2-9.
22. BARRETO, A.B.; COSTA, P. C. G.; YANO, E. T. Using a Semantic Approach to Cyber Impact Assessment. In: STIDS 2013 - Semantic Technologies for Intelligence Defense and Security, 2013, 2013, Fairfax. Proceedings of the Eighth Conference on Semantic Technologies for Intelligence, Defense, and Security, 2013. v. 1097. p. 101-108.
23. MACHADO, A. F. A.; BARRETO, A.B.; YANO, E. T. Architecture for Cyber Defense Simulator in Military Applications. In: 18th International Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium, 2013, Alexandria. 18th International Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium, 2013.
24. PULLEN, J.M.; ABABNEH, M.; NICKLAS, L.; CONNOR, M.; BARRETO, A.B. An Open Source MSDL/C-BML Interface to VRForces. In: 2012 Fall Simulation Interoperability Workshop, 2012, Orlando. A DoD MODELING & SIMULATION COORDINATION OFFICE PUBLICATION, 2012. v. WINTER. p. 28-35.
25. BARRETO, A.; COSTA, P.C.; YANO, E.T. A Semantic Approach to Evaluate the Impact of Cyber Actions to the Physical Domain. In: Semantic Technologies for Intelligence, Defense, and Security - STIDS, 2012, Fairfax. CEUR Workshop Proceedings. Fairfax: George Mason University, Volgenau School of Information Technology and Engineering, 2012. v. 966. p. 64-71.
26. BARRETO, A.B.; HIEB, M.; YANO, E.T. Developing a Complex Simulation Environment for Evaluating Cyber Attacks. In: The Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation & Education Conference (I/ITSEC), 2012, Orlando. The Power of Innovation Enabling the Global Force, 2012. v. 2012.
27. BARUFFALDI, A.L.M; BARRETO, A.B.; OLIVEIRA, J. M. P.; MARQUES, H.C. An Automated Data Fusion Process for an Air Defense Scenario. In: 16th ICCRTS, 2011, Quebec. Collective C2 in Multinational Civil-Military Operations, 2011.
28. BARRETO, A.B.; YANO, E.T. A Influência de Arquiteturas Abertas em Sistemas de Defesa para Obtenção de Requisitos de Dependabilidade. In: XIII SIGE, 2011, São José dos Campos. Simpósio de Aplicações Operacionais em Áreas de Defesa, 2011.
29. MARQUES, H.C.; OLIVEIRA, J.M.P.; BARRETO, A.B.; COSTA, P.C.; HIEB, M. Distributed Simulation as a Planning Support Tool for Relief Operations. In: XIII SIGE, 2011, São José dos Campos. XIII SIGE, 2011.
30. BARRETO, A.B.; YANO, E.T. Using a P2P architecture for voice and radar transportation in critical Command and Control systems. In: MILCOM 2010 2010 IEEE Military Communications Conference, 2010, San Jose. 2010 - MILCOM 2010 MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE. p. 1169.
31. BARRETO, A.B.; GONCALVES, R. L.; FALEIROS, A. C. MIKEY-DHHMAC-SAS - The New MIKEY Transportation Mode. In: WORLDCOMP'07, 2007, 2007, Las Vegas, NA. The 2007 International Conference on Multimedia Systems and Applications (MSA'07), 2007. v. 1. p. 117-123.