Seth Hamman, Ph.D.

Director, Center for the Advancement of Cybersecurity and Associate Professor of Cyber Operations and Computer Science Cedarville University

Cedarville OH

Dr. Hamman is interested in helping to shape the young and growing discipline of cybersecurity education.

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Spotlight

May 3, 2019

1 min

Cybersecurity – Is it finally getting the attention it deserves? Ask our experts!

It’s been talked about, dominated the news and has cost some companies billions – but it seems like finally America’s leaders are taking the issue of cybersecurity seriously. With an election looming and non-stop threats coming from enemies near and afar, it seems like America’s leaders are now on side in the battle against cybersecurity. Last week President Trump signed an executive order directing the creation of programs to grow and strengthen our cybersecurity workforce to meet the challenges of the 21st century. “America built the internet and shared it with the world; now we will do our part to secure and preserve cyberspace for future generations.” President Donald J. Trump It’s a lofty goal – and odds are an expensive one, but will it work? Who are the chief actors behind potential cyber-attacks? What are the key targets? What are the costs to secure America’s cyber-territory? And more importantly, what are the consequences if we do not? There are a lot of questions out there and that’s where out experts can help. Dr. Seth Hamman earned his Ph.D. in computer science with an emphasis in cybersecurity at the Air Force's graduate school, the Air Force Institute of Technology, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. As a researcher he is interested in helping to shape the young and growing discipline of cybersecurity education. Contact him today for your story! Simply click on his icon to arrange an interview.

Oct 5, 2018

1 min

Cloudhopper - What is it and should we worry?

Earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning that a Beijing based group of hackers -dubbed ‘cloudhopper’ was mounting a potential cyber-attack on American based institutions. The Chinese government has denied these claims vigorously and stated that China does not support hacking. So, what is cloudhopper? What businesses and institutions are most vulnerable? And does America need to increase its focus on cyber-security and digital threats? There are a lot of questions – and only a few leading experts who can help explain the situation. That’s where Cedarville can help. Dr. Seth Hamman is an assistant professor of computer science at Cedarville. Seth is an expert in cybersecurity education. Dr. Hamman is available to speak with media – simply click on his icon to arrange an interview.

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Biography

Dr. Hamman joined the faculty at Cedarville in 2012. He brings real-world experience to the classroom from having worked in the tech industry, both as an employee of a startup dotcom and as a consultant. He earned his Ph.D. in computer science with an emphasis in cybersecurity at the Air Force's graduate school, the Air Force Institute of Technology, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. As a researcher he is interested in helping to shape the young and growing discipline of cybersecurity education.

Industry Expertise

Education/Learning

Computer/Network Security

Religious Institutions

Areas of Expertise

Cybersecurity Issues and Stories

Education

The Air Force Institute of Technology

Ph.D.

Computer Science

2016

Dissertation: Improving the Cybersecurity of Cyber-Physical Systems Through Behavioral Game Theory and Model Checking in Practice and in Education

Yale University

M.S.

Computer Science

2011

Duke University

B.A.

Religion

2002

Media Appearances

Cybersecurity Stamp of Approval

WDTN TV tv

2018-06-08

Seth Hamman joins WDTN TV to discuss cybersecurity.

Dayton business people in the news

Dayton Daily News online

2016-10-17

Seth Hamman, professor of computer science at Cedarville University, received his doctorate in computer science from the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), on Sept. 15. His dissertation focused heavily on cybersecurity.

Cedarville to Launch Cybersecurity Track in Fall 2016

Cedars online

2016-05-05

Cedarville University’s School of Engineering and Computer Science is launching a cybersecurity track within the computer science major for the 2016-2017 school year. In a post-Edward Snowden, Apple v. FBI age, cybersecurity is in the news nearly every day, and Cedarville’s program will allow its students to be competitive in the computer science field.

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Research Grants

2017 NSA Curriculum Development Grant

NSA $100.000

2017-04-14

Following published results of the effectiveness of teaching game theory to improve the adversarial thinking abilities of cybersecurity students, the work for this grant will go into developing the curriculum materials such that they could be used by other cybersecurity educators.

Articles

Teaching Game Theory to Improve Adversarial Thinking in Cybersecurity Students

IEEE Transactions on Education

2017

The ability to anticipate the strategic actions of hackers, including where, when, and how they might attack, and their tactics for evading detection, is a valuable skill for cybersecurity. Therefore, developing the strategic reasoning abilities of cybersecurity students is an important cybersecurity education learning objective. This paper proposes that basic game theory concepts should be taught to cybersecurity students in order to improve their strategic reasoning abilities. It details a pretest-posttest educational experiment that demonstrates that 2 h of basic game theory instruction results in a statistically significant improvement in students' abilities to anticipate the strategic actions of others. It also provides details of the game theory curriculum to help other cybersecurity educators replicate these results. Additionally, this paper suggests that another benefit of teaching game theory in a cybersecurity course is that it may fundamentally alter the way students view the practice of cybersecurity, helping to sensitize them to the human adversary element inherent in cybersecurity in addition to technology-focused best practices. This could result in a more naturally strategic-minded, and therefore better equipped, cybersecurity workforce.

A Model Checking Approach to Testing the Reliability of Smart Grid Protection Systems

IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery

2017

As distributed, communication-based protection systems become more prevalent in the emerging smart grid, the task of critically assessing their reliability has become increasingly challenging due to the complexity of their underlying software designs. This paper demonstrates that the discipline of software model checking can be applied to smart grid protection software designs to rigorously assess their fault tolerance. In this paper, the SPIN model checker (SPIN) is applied to a published wide-area backup protection system (WABPS). The WABPS was specifically architected to be highly reliable under various kinds of common failure scenarios, including mechanical malfunctions, erroneous sensor readings, and communication failures. However, because of its built-in redundancy and decentralized peer-to-peer design, calculating its precise fault tolerance is nontrivial. This paper shows how SPIN can be applied to the WABPS’s design to brute-force prove the limits of the number and types of failures that can occur while the system remains able to successfully perform its function. This same technique is applicable to a wide variety of smart grid protection software designs, and the information it provides is invaluable to protection engineers during the development of new systems, for assessing the quality of competing designs, and for risk management purposes.