William A. Arbaugh Associate Professor

Associate Professor

My research interests are evolving at the moment. I am very interested in developing methods and techniques to combat the increasing malware problem. This is a multi-disciplinary problem involving:

- Education - We have to teach our students.

- Control - Improved or new operating system and hardware techniques.

- Awareness - IT managers are clueless as to the operational “state” of their information systems.

- Architecture - We have to design and build systems in a more assured manner (see Education above).

Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack, attack and attack some more.

Gen. George S. Patton

Against those skilled in attack, the enemy does not know where to defend. Against those skilled in defense, the enemy does not know where to attack.

Sun Tzu

Research Interests

I joined the Computer Science department at the University of Maryland College Park in 2000 after serving sixteen years with the U.S. Department of Defense. During the sixteen years, I served in several leadership positions in diverse areas ranging from tactical communications to advanced research.

In 2004, I founded Komoku, Inc. Komoku furthered research, Semantic Integrity, developed by myself and my students into a product to detect sophisticated malware. Komoku was purchased by Microsoft in 2008, and the technology incorporated into their product line in 2009.

I received a B.S. from the United States Military Academy at West Point, a M.S. in computer science from Columbia University, and PhD in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania.