Cyber Security Center of Academic Excellence

• S. Schmeelk, K. Thakur, M. L. Ali, D. M. Dragos, A. Al-Hayajneh and B. R. Pramana, "Top Reported Data Security Risks in the Age of COVID-19," 2021 IEEE 12th Annual Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics & Mobile Communication Conference (UEMCON), 2021, pp. 0204-0208, https://doi.org/10.1109/UEMCON53757.2021.9666573
• Schmeelk, S., and Tao, L. A Case Study of Mobile Health Applications: The OWASP Risk of Insufficient Cryptography. Journal of Computer Science Research, [S.l.], v. 4, n. 1, feb. 2022. ISSN 2630-5151. doi:https://doi.org/10.30564/jcsr.v4i1.4271.
• Schmeelk, S., Dogo, M. S., Peng, Y., & Patra, B. G. (2022). Classifying Cyber-Risky Clinical Notes by Employing Natural Language Processing. Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2022, 4140–4146. https://doi.org/10.24251/hicss.2022.505
• Laura M. Truong, and Erald Troja, and Nikhil Yadav, and Syed Bukhari, and Mehradad Aliasgari Personalized Outsourced Privacy-Preserving Database Updates for Crowd-Sensed Dynamic Spectrum Access. IEEE MELECON22
• Laura M. Truong, and Erald Troja, and Nikhil Yadav, and Mehradad Aliasgari Machine Learning Architecture for Signature-Based IoT Intrusion Detection in Smart Energy Grids. IEEE MELECON22
• Joan DeBello E., and Suzanna Schmeelk, and Denise Dragos, and Laura M. Truong, and Erald Troja Teaching effective Cybersecurity through Escape the Classroom Paradigm. IEEE EDUCON22, pages 111–117, 2022
• Erald Troja, Joan DeBello E., and Nicole Roman. Teaching Efficient Computer Science and Cybersecurity Courses Amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic. IEEE EDUCON21, pages 95–109, 2021
• Suzanna Schmeelk, Denise Dragos, and Joan Debello. What can we learn about Healthcare it Risk from Hitech? Risk Lessons Learned from the US HHS OCR Breach Portal. In Proceedings of the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, page 3993, 2021
• Erald Troja and Ice Lin. Fraud-resilient Privacy-Preserving Crowd-Sensing for Dynamic Spectrum Access. IEEE VTC21, pages 24234–24248, 2021
• Erald Troja, Nikhil Yadav, Ice Lin, and Nhie U Diep.Privacy-Preserving Crowd-Sensing for Dynamic Spectrum Access with Malicious Workers. IEEE Access, 9:24234–24248, 2021
• Denise Dragos and Suzanna Schmeelk. What are they reporting? Examining Student Cybersecurity Course Surveys Through the Lens of Machine Learning. In 2020 19th IEEE International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA), pages 961–964. IEEE, 2020
• Suzanna Schmeelk. Creating a Standardized Risk Assessment Framework Library for Healthcare Information Technology. In Proceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2020
• Suzanna Schmeelk and Lixin Tao. Mobile Cyber-assurance Informed through Knowledge Graph Construction: the Owasp Threat of Insecure Communications. International Journal of Internet of Things and Cyber-Assurance, 1(3-4):317–337, 2020
• Spiridon Bakiras, Erald Troja, Xiaohua Xu, and Juliano Fischer Naves.Secure and Anonymous Communications over Delay Tolerant Networks. IEEE Access, 8(1):88158–88169, 2020
• Suzanna Schmeelk. Mitigating Bring Your Own Device Risks by Static Analysis Empowered by Knowledge Graphs from Open Web Application Security Project. PhD thesis, Pace University, 2020
• Erald Troja and Joshua Gitter. Privacy-preserving Crowd-sensing for Dynamic Spectrum Access. In MILCOM 2019-2019 IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM), pages 1–6. IEEE, 2019
• Suzanna Schmeelk. Where are We Looking for Security Concerns? Understanding Android Security Static Analysis. In Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference, pages 467–483. Springer, 2019
• Suzanna Schmeelk. Where is the risk? Analysis of Government Reported Patient Medical Data Breaches. In IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence-Companion Volume, pages 269–272, 2019
• Suzanna Schmeelk. Network Protocol Security: A Linear Bitwise Protocol Transformation. In Intelligent Computing-Proceedings of the Computing Conference, pages 751–770. Springer, 2019
• Erald Troja and Spiridon Bakiras.Optimizing Privacy-Preserving DSA for Mobile Clients. Ad Hoc Networks, 59:71–85, 2017
• Spiridon Bakiras, Erald Troja, and Xiaohua Xu. An Anonymous Messaging System for Delay Tolerant Networks. In 2017 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), pages 1–6. IEEE, 2017

The following events have been made possible through the coordination of St. John's ACM Student Chapter which is moderated by Dr. Joan E. DeBello.

For the most up to date information, please click here to learn more or join their mailing list.

The following students are all members of the St. John's ACM Student Chapter which is moderated by Dr. Joan E. DeBello.  They have been selected to represent St. John's University into hands-on Cybersecurity competitions.  The Cybersecurity Team is mentored by Rahul S. Karnik and Dr. Erald Troja.  For information on how to join St. John's ACM Student Chapter please contact Dr. Joan E. DeBello or Dr. Erald Troja.  

Team Captain

Isaac Sierra
[email protected]

Hello, I’m Isaac Sierra. I’m a Senior at St. John’s Majoring in Cyber Security Systems and minoring in Digital Forensics. I am also Co-President of St. John's ACM Student Chapter, Student Advancement of Technology Association, and Captain of the SJU Cyber Security Competition’s Team. I’m a first-Generation American Citizen, as well as a first-Generation College student. I have a passion for soccer and all things cyber to name a couple of things!  
 

Team Competitors

Vincent Monteleone
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My name is Vincent Monteleone and I’m currently in my senior year majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics. My coding career is relatively new, starting my freshman year at St. John’s. I instantly gripped onto programming, with exploring new ideas/projects from web-scraping to using graphics and building websites. Most of the Work I’ve done in the field consists of teaching young programmers how to excel at various tech camps. I love to run and hike as much as I do soldering! I plan to pursue my master’s in data science once I graduate. 
 

Edwin Calle
[email protected]

Hey all, my name is Edwin Calle, I am a Sophomore here at St. John's University majoring in Cyber Security Systems. Currently with my CCNA & CCENT Certifications from Cisco Systems and striving to obtain my OSCP in the upcoming months. I have passions in all sorts of I.T fields ranging from my roots in computer networking, to programming, and now immersed in cyber security in college with the hope of one day becoming a penetration tester. 
 

Raihaan Ferdous
[email protected]

My name is Raihaan Ferdous and I am currently trying to improve my knowledge with internetworking. I currently have my MTA Networking Fundamentals certification and I'm also working on attaining my CCNA certification. 
 

Dilpreet Kaur
[email protected]

Hi! My name is Dilpreet Kaur and I’m a senior at St. John’s University studying Computer Science with a concentration in Cyber Security. When I found out about the Northeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, I was very intrigued by the scope of the competition and as a result decided to partake in it. Additionally, this competition seemed like the perfect opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills I learned over the past four years at St. John’s University. 
 

Aaliyah Azimula
[email protected]

My name is Aaliyah Azimulla and I’m a 4th year undergraduate student majoring in cyber security with a minor in business. During my time at St. John’s University I’ve joined various organizations including St. John's ACM Student Chapter, NSLS (National Society of Leadership and Success), and Omicron Delta Kappa. Being a part of St. John's ACM Student Chapter since my freshman year has allowed me to participate in SheHacks, NCL (nation cyber league), and NECCDC. After graduation, I will continue my education at St. John’s University pursing my MBA in Information Systems.  

Davendra Seecharran
[email protected] 

My name is Davendra Seecharran and I am a current freshman and a cyber security major. I am an aspiring Cisco Networking Academy Instructor. I also have ambitions to become a cyber professional in a Security Operation Center for a Government Agency such as the FBI or NSA. 
 

Chloe Mouawad
[email protected]
Hi, I'm Chloe! I'm a cybersecurity major with a concentration in digital forensics. I've been part of St. John's ACM Student Chapter my entire time at St. John's and just recently competed in my first cyber competition with them. I'll be taking on my first internship this summer in digital forensics and I'm looking to explore more in that field after graduation. 
 

Team Subs and Reserves

Sam Daniele
[email protected]

I am currently a junior majoring in Cyber Security Systems with a minor in Digital Forensics at St. John's University. I strive to use my technical skills for a better tomorrow in the vast field of cyber security as I eventually want to work for the government; I have always exhibited a strong work ethic and resourceful ability. My interests include threat analysis, penetration testing, and Linux. While completing my coursework and being an active member in my school’s Cyber Security Club, I am working on obtaining the CompTIA Security+ certification. I am always eager to try new things that could potentially advance the knowledge that I possess. 
 

Nicole Roman
[email protected]

My name is Nicole and I'm a senior Cyber Security Systems major. I serve on my university's Student Advancement of Technology Association as the events coordinator. I've made the Dean's List each year that I've attended SJU. I am also a part of the university Honors Program and the Collins College of Professional Studies Honor Society. I have participated in two internships in the cybersecurity field and one externship. I hope to develop my skillset in the incident response area of cybersecurity upon graduation. 
 

Rafinal Haque
[email protected]

Hello, my name is Rafinal Haque, I am a Freshman that has a passion for Cyber security because I find computers very interesting. It first started when I went to my high school which is a Vocational school and I picked up a trade in Computer Networking. So I came to SJU in order to further my knowledge and career. Some things about me outside of school is that I like basketball and the UFC. 
 

Nicholas Sakatis
[email protected]

My name is Nicholas Sakatis, I am a Cyber Security Systems major and part of the Class of 2024. Being from New York, a city filled with technology, I've always been surrounded by computers and technology of that sort. I built my first computer at 8 years old and have been coding since I was 13 years old. With being a Cyber Security student, competing in these competitions help me see real world scenarios that will help me in the future. 
 

Raymond Ramdat
[email protected]

My name is Raymond Ramdat and I am second semester freshman here at St. John's University, majoring in Cyber Security Systems. My passion for cybersecurity began in middle school when I would spend countless hours watching videos about all forms of technology. This passion grew in high school when I took classes that focused on computer networking, through the Cisco Networking Academy. In the future, I hope to receive my master's degree in Business Administration and find a job in the cybersecurity field that will fully utilize both my undergraduate and graduate degrees. Outside of cybersecurity and school, some my interests include traveling and baseball. 

St. John’s University Information Security and Compliance