B.A.: Medicinal Use of Psychoactive Substances

Indicate any other major, minor, certificate, and/or honors that will be on your graduation record:

B.A. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Degree Mentors

• Dr. Sarah Leupen, Department of Biological Sciences
• Dr. Katherine Seley-Radtke, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor
• Eric Brown, Individualized Study

Why did you choose to major in INDS?

I first heard about INDS during an information session at a campus visit when I was initially touring UMBC. One of the example topics the tour guide mentioned was Neuroscience, and at the time I was very interested in pursuing a Neuroscience degree.

 What are your plans for after graduation, and how do you see using your INDS degree?

I hope to be pursuing a PhD in Pharmacology after graduation. My INDS degree is focused on the area of research I am interested in pursuing in my future career, and has been a way for me to pursue coursework that will prepare me for my graduate degree. My work for my degree and my capstone project have also been a good talking point in interviews that have helped me stand apart from my peers during the application process.

EXTRACURRICULAR

Meyerhoff Scholars Program (M32), USM Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP), Chemistry and Biochemistry Council of Majors (PR Officer, Vice President), Neuroscience Club (Founding Member, Vice President), Delta Phi Epsilon Sorority (Member, Sisterhood Chair, Senior Programming Chair, Vice President of Operations, Director of Finance), STEM Living Learning Community (Peer Mentor (3 years)), Chemistry Department Learning Assistant (6 semesters), Academic Success Center Tutor (2 semesters), Undergraduate Research Assistant in the Vonhoff Lab (Department of Biological Sciences) (URCAD 2022, 2023, 2024 presentations, URAs in 2022-2023, 2023-2024), Summer 2023 NSF BRAVe Internship (San Antonio, TX).

For more information on Francesca's INDS journey please click here:

Written by Richard Forno, principal lecturer in computer science and electrical engineering, UMBC

Volt Typhoon is a Chinese state-sponsored hacker group. The United States government and its primary global intelligence partners, known as the Five Eyes, issued a warning on March 19, 2024, about the group’s activity targeting critical infrastructure.

The warning echoes analyses by the cybersecurity community about Chinese state-sponsored hacking in recent years. As with many cyberattacks and attackers, Volt Typhoon has many aliases and also is known as Vanguard Panda, Bronze Silhouette, Dev-0391, UNC3236, Voltzite and Insidious Taurus. Following these latest warnings, China again denied that it engages in offensive cyberespionage.

Volt Typhoon has compromised thousands of devices around the world since it was publicly identified by security analysts at Microsoft in May 2023. However, some analysts in both the government and cybersecurity community believe the group has been targeting infrastructure since mid-2021, and possibly much longer.

Volt Typhoon uses malicious software that penetrates internet-connected systems by exploiting vulnerabilities such as weak administrator passwords, factory default logins and devices that haven’t been updated regularly. The hackers have targeted communications, energy, transportation, water and wastewater systems in the U.S. and its territories, such as Guam.

In many ways, Volt Typhoon functions similarly to traditional botnet operators that have plagued the internet for decades. It takes control of vulnerable internet devices such as routers and security cameras to hide and establish a beachhead in advance of using that system to launch future attacks.

Operating this way makes it difficult for cybersecurity defenders to accurately identify the source of an attack. Worse, defenders could accidentally retaliate against a third party who is unaware that they are caught up in Volt Typhoon’s botnet.

Why Volt Typhoon matters

Disrupting critical infrastructure has the potential to cause economic harm around the world. Volt Typhoon’s operation also poses a threat to the U.S. military by potentially disrupting power and water to military facilities and critical supply chains.

Microsoft’s 2023 report noted that Volt Typhoon could “disrupt critical communications infrastructure between the United States and Asia region during future crises.” The March 2024 report, published in the U.S. by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, likewise warned that the botnet could lead to “disruption or destruction of critical services in the event of increased geopolitical tensions and/or military conflict with the United States and its allies.”

Volt Typhoon’s existence and the escalating tensions between China and the U.S., particularly over Taiwan, underscore the latest connection between global events and cybersecurity.

Defending against Volt Typhoon

The FBI reported on Jan. 31, 2024, that it had disrupted Volt Typhoon’s operations by removing the group’s malware from hundreds of small office/home office routers. However, the U.S. is still determining the extent of the group’s infiltration of America’s critical infrastructure.

On March 25, 2024, the U.S. and U.K. announced that they had imposed sanctions on Chinese hackers involved in compromising their infrastructures. And other countries, including New Zealand, have revealed cyberattacks traced back to China in recent years.

All organizations, especially infrastructure providers, must practice time-tested safe computing centered on preparation, detection and response. They must ensure that their information systems and smart devices are properly configured and patched, and that they can log activity. And they should identify and replace any devices at the edges of their networks, such as routers and firewalls, that no longer are supported by their vendor.

Organizations can also implement strong user-authentication measures such as multifactor authentication to make it more difficult for attackers like Volt Typhoon to compromise systems and devices. More broadly, the comprehensive NIST Cybersecurity Framework can help these organizations develop stronger cybersecurity postures to defend against Volt Typhoon and other attackers.

Individuals, too, can take steps to protect themselves and their employers by ensuring their devices are properly updated, enabling multifactor authentication, never reusing passwords, and otherwise remaining vigilant to suspicious activity on their accounts, devices and networks.

For cybersecurity practitioners and society generally, attacks like Volt Typhoon can represent an enormous geopolitical cybersecurity threat. They are a reminder for everyone to monitor what’s going on in the world and consider how current events can affect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of all things digital.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article and see more than 250 UMBC articles available in The Conversation.

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Applications are due on May 30 for groups beginning in Fall 2024.