RIT ESL Global Cybersecurity Institute

Dr. Billy Brumley, Kevin O'Sullivan Professor in the department of cybersecurity and director of research for the ESL Global Cybersecurity Institute, is running his third iteration of CSEC 635 - Open Source Software Security this spring.

Students in the course have to submit code changes to OpenSSL, a critical open-source cryptography and security library. Their edits have included bug fixes and contributions to documentation and regression testing.

In a gesture of support for community-driven development, the Openssl Corporation sent the class shirts, mugs, and other OpenSSL swag. This partnership underscores the company's commitment to empowering the developers who will shape the future of secure, open-sourced software.

Don’t miss the next Provost Speaker Series talk this Friday! Dr. Matthew Wright, Chair of the Department of Cybersecurity, will be presenting “Towards an All-in-One Media Forensics Tool”.

Join Dr. Wright as he explains how his team’s research explores the requirements for deepfake detection tools and explainability features, argues the need for an all-in-one tool for media forensics, and proposes an ontology-based approach to creating a navigable user interface for such a tool.

Stay for the question-and-answer session after the presentation with Matt and members of his team.

🗓️March 6, 2026
🕐 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
🖥️ Zoom only - register to attend: https://brnw.ch/21x0qia

📸: Scott Hamilton // RIT

Since launching in 2023, 189 students have assisted 47 organizations with cybersecurity assessments, pe*******on testing, and enhancing security postures as part of our Cybersecurity Clinic at RIT! 🛡️

This semester, the clinic is helping Geva Theatre, Refugees Helping Refugees, and the Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council, among other organizations who applied to take part in the program.

“Working with the RIT team has been excellent,” says James Haskins, Executive Director of Geva Theatre. “Their approach is very professional—carefully planned, rigorously executed, and well documented, with full consideration of our schedules so as not to impact performances and other theater activities." 🗣️

Interested in learning more or applying for future pro bono services from our students? Check out https://brnw.ch/21wYbvk

Photos:
1: Working with Geva Theatre, students Mitchell Windahl, left, Jack Tumulty, Caden Wright, and Phillip Johnson got to see the stage for the play “Sancocho.”
2: Working with Refugess Helping Refugees were students Aarthi Kosaraju, right; Cambria Kinkelaar, second from right; and Jaden Moore, fifth from right.

The rise of AI assistants and specialized LLMs claiming security knowledge has begged a critical question: how do we really know if they're up to the task? 🕵

At RIT's AI4SEC Research Lab, ESL GCI researcher and assistant professor Nidhi Rastogi and her team have developed CTIBench. This comprehensive suite of benchmarking tasks and datasets is designed to rigorously test and assess LLMs in Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) – a crucial process for proactive defense against evolving cyber threats.

And the industry is taking notice. Google is leveraging CTIBench to evaluate its new experimental cybersecurity model, Sec-Gemini v1. Cisco and Trend Micro are also utilizing CTIBench to evaluate cybersecurity applications within their own LLMs.

As Rastogi explains, "Since there was no reliable benchmark for CTI, we felt it was the right time to build one. We’re not blindly following AI but smartly integrating it into our lives." Learn more: https://brnw.ch/21wTlG5