Aunshul Rege

FUNDED RESEARCH PROJECTS

Research Website: CARE

SaTC EDU grant [Feb 2021 – Jan 2024]
Title: "SaTC: EDU: Educating STEM Students and Teachers about the Relevance of Social Engineering in Cyberattacks and Cybersecurity.
Role: PI

Department of Energy/Idaho National Laboratory [Summer 2022]
Title: "Reactor Architectures Resilient to Ransomware Attacks"
Role: PI

Department of Energy/Idaho National Laboratory [Summer 2022]
Title: "Human Performance in Cybersecurity for Asset Owners and Operators: Sociological and Cybercrime Perspective to Modeling Operational Roles in Utilities"
Role: PI

NSF CAREER grant [Sep 2015-Aug 2020]
Title:"CAREER: Applying a Criminological Framework to Understand Adaptive Adversarial Decision-Making Processes in Critical Infrastructure Cyberattacks"
Role: PI

NSF EAGER grant [Sep 2017-Aug 2019]
Title:"EAGER: Collaborative: A Criminology-Based Simulation of Dynamic Adversarial Behavior in Cyberattacks"
Role: PI

NSF CPS grant [Jan 2015-Dec 2017]
Title: "CPS: Synergy: Collaborative Research: Towards Secure Networked Cyber-Physical Systems: A Game-Theoretic Framework with Bounded Rationality"
Role: Co-PI


Students

Undergraduate Students

Graduate Students

I am an Associate Professor with the Criminal Justice Department at Temple University. I am the Director of the Cybersecurity in Application, Research, and Education (CARE) Lab. I currently serve as the Research Lead for the Social Engineering Community at Defcon. I also serve on the Advisory Board of Raices Cyber and Black Girls Hack.

Our projects have received international recognition:
Critical Infrastructure Ransomware Attacks (CIRA)
Organizations We Love (OWL)
Social Engineering Events

I received my PhD from the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University in May 2012. My research focuses on proactive cybersecurity, focusing on adversarial behavior, decision-making, movement, adaptation to disruption, and group dynamics. More recently, I have become interested in the area of social engineering, as well as experiential learning and cybersecurity education. The hands-on social engineering projects I developed for my students have been mapped on to the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework (NICE Framework) and you can request free downloads at my research website Cybersecurity in Action, Research and Education (CARE).

Recent Publications
[ (*) = undergraduate student co-author; (+) = graduate student co-author ]


Rege, A. & Bleiman, R.(+). (2022). "A Free and Community-driven Critical Infrastructure Ransomware Dataset". Proceedings from the IEEE Cyber Science Conference.

Bleiman, R. (+), Williams, J., Rege, A. & Williams, K.(+). (2022). "Exploring the MITRE ATT&CK® Matrix in SE Education". Proceedings from the IEEE Cyber Science Conference.

Williams, K.(+), Bleiman, R.(+), & Rege, A. (2022). "Educating educators on social engineering: Experiences developing and implementing a social engineering workshop for all education levels". Proceedings from the 11th IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC).

Rege, A.& Bleiman, R. (+) (forthcoming). "Collegiate Social Engineering Capture the Flag Competition". Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE eCrime Researchers Summit. Winner of Best Student Paper Award.

Bleiman, R. (+), Ducoste, M.(+) & Rege, A. (2021). “Understanding cybercriminals through analysis of penetration testing group dynamics”. Proceedings from the IEEE Cyber Science Conference.

Ducoste, M. (+), Bleiman, R. (+), Nguyen, T (+). & Rege, A. (2021). “An Examination of Industry Standards of Success within Penetration Testing Groups”. Proceedings from the 10th IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC).

For a complete list of publications, please click here.




Buster (my companion) recently passed away. He and I were Associate Members of Therapy Dog International. We got to visit nursing homes, hospitals, universities, and other institutions and wherever else therapy dogs were needed. I am also an active blood donor with the American Red Cross. They have frequent blood drives on Temple campus.


CV Undergrad Research Graduate Research Contact