Dr. Anteneh T. Girma, a distinguished cybersecurity expert and educator, serves as the Cybersecurity Program Director and Professor at the University of the District of Columbia, where he leads groundbreaking research in AI-driven cybersecurity, mentors doctoral and master's students, and secures competitive grants to advance cybersecurity education and workforce development.
Experience
Education
Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science/Cybersecurity, Magna Cum Laud, Howard University
Roles
Cybersecurity Program Director and Professor, UCD, 2024-Present Cybersecurity Program Director and Associate Professor, UCD, 2019-Present Associate Professor, Robert Morris University, 2018-19 Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Maryland, 2017-18 Adjunct Associate Professor, Montgomery College, 2016-Present
Courses Taught
Principles of CyberSecurity and Practice Internet of Things (IoT) Security Advanced Cryptography Introduction to Cryptography Computer Network Security Cloud Computing Challenge and Security Cybersecurity Governance and Risk Control Advanced Information Security and Assurance Network Technology and Management Introduction to Ethics in Cybersecurity and Cyber Law
Expertise
Supervisor of Ph.D. students Supervisor of M.S. in Computer Science students
Leadership
Founding director of the Cybersecurity Program Founding new cybersecurity program to debut in Fall 2025
Impact
Selected Publications
Zewdie, T., Girma, A., & Cotae, P. (2022). Malware detection framework in cyber-physical systems using artificial intelligence - Machine learning. Issues In Information Systems, 23, 316-332. https://doi.org/10.48009/1_iis_2022_126.
Zewdie, T., & Girma, A. (2020). IoT security and the role of AI/ML to combat emerging cyber threats in cloud computing environment. Information Systems Journal, 21, 253-263. https://doi.org/10.48009/4_iis_2020_253-263.
Girma, A. & Wang, P. (2018). An efficient hybrid model for detecting distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks in cloud computing using multivariate correlation and data mining clustering techniques. Issues in Information System. 19(2), 1-12. https://catalog.caida.org/paper/2018_ag_pw_2019548
Girma, A., & Marishet T., (2023). Deep neural network-based detection for insider threats and social engineering attacks. In Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE Global Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (GCAIoT).https://doi.org/10.1109/icecet61485.2024.10698519
Irungu, J., Graham,S., Girma, A., & Kacem, T. (2023). Artificial intelligence techniques for SQL injection attack detection. In Proceedings of the 2023 8th International Conference on Intelligent Information Technology (ICIIT '23). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3591569.3591576
Girma, A., Guo, M .A., & Irungu, J. (2023). Identifying shared security vulnerabilities and mitigation strategies at the intersection of application programming interfaces (APIs), application-level and operating system (OS) of mobile devices. In Arai, K. (Ed.), Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 2022, Volume 2. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18458-1_34
Selected Presentations
Girma, A., & Brown, K. (2024). Security analysis of drone communication methods. 2024: 21st International Conference on Information Technology-New Generations.
Girma, A. Searcy A., & Barrett, A. (2024). Analysis of privacy, security, and trust in the internet of things (IoT) ecosystem. International Symposium on Networks, Computers and Communications (ISNCC). Washington, D.C.
Selected Grants
Department of Defense. (2021). Machine learning experiment research. National Science Foundation. (2020). Targeted infusion project: Workforce development for new generation of cyber security systems. Microsoft. (2020). Merit-based scholarships for students. National Security Agency. (2020). Creation of center of academic excellence in cybersecurity education at UCD.
Recognitions
Leadership Award, School of Engineering and Applied Science, UDC, 2024 Best Research Paper Award, International Conference on Information Technology, 2015 Cybersecurity Research Recognition, Science of Security Virtual Organization, International Cybersecurity Contribution Dean’s Award Outstanding Academic Achievement Award, Howard University
Invited Participations
Girma, A. (2019). Soft computing and machine learning (SCML) international cybersecurity conference, Wuhan, China.
