Chaminade University of Honolulu

Center for Strategy and Innovation

Cybersecurity Workshop

Expert warns of maintaining healthy online hygiene

Similar to what you would hear at a dentist office, Liam Wesley dispensed advice about the importance of daily hygiene during a Cybersecurity Workshop at the Data Science Center in Tredtin Hall. But for the cybersecurity expert, this means never using the same username nor the same password ever! Just like you would never keep using the same strand of floss.

In an era dominated by digitization, Wesley described the importance of robust cybersecurity measures that cannot be overstated. As online users navigate an increasingly interconnected world, the guardians of our digital realm are facing new challenges and adapting strategies to protect against evolving cyber threats. Wesley is among them fighting the digital perils.

The 90-minute Cybersecurity Workshop was hosted by the National Science Foundation ALL-SPICE Alliance, which includes the United Nations CIFAL CENTER of Honolulu, Information Technology and Services Department (senior director Jules Sukhabut), the Networking Department (director Joseph Rosario), Data Science, Analytics and Visualization Program (director Rylan Chong, Ph.D.) and the Computer Science Department.

Liam Wesley—a penetration tester and cybersecurity engineer with High Tech Hui, LLC and Cyberruptive—demonstrated some of the tools that professional hackers keep in their arsenal.
Liam Wesley—a penetration tester and cybersecurity engineer with High Tech Hui, LLC and Cyberruptive—demonstrated some of the tools that professional hackers keep in their arsenal.

“We brought in Liam to demonstrate real cyberattacks, and discuss how a student can protect themselves for educational purposes and build awareness,” said Chong, Co-Principal Investigator of the National Science Foundation’s Alliance Supporting Pacific Impact through Computational Excellence (ALL-SPICE) grant. “Joe and I plan to pilot this cybersecurity workshop to Natural Sciences and Mathematics students to gauge interest. This will help us understand if there is interest for future workshops, larger workshops and/or a need for a cybersecurity course or program.”

Cybersecurity experts, like Wesley—a penetration tester and cybersecurity engineer with High Tech Hui, LLC and Cyberruptive—warn of the escalating sophistication of cyber threats, ranging from ransomware attacks that cripple essential services to targeted phishing campaigns exploiting the remote work landscape. The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices—AI voice assistants like the Amazon Echo and Google Home—coupled with the rise of artificial intelligence in cyberattacks, adds a layer of complexity to the battlefield.

In the face of these evolving threats, organizations are doubling down on best practices to fortify their defenses. This includes regular employee training to recognize and thwart phishing attempts, implementing multi-factor authentication, and keeping software and systems up-to-date with the latest security patches.

“Patching is absolutely necessary,” Wesley said. “But wait a few days to avoid the potential for buffer overflow, which are memory storage regions that temporarily hold data while it is being transferred from one location to another.”

Initially limited to Rosario’s computer science networking class, the workshop was eventually opened to all Natural Sciences and Mathematics students due to the importance of the topic and the large interest from Chong’s previous presentation on the topic.

One of the workshop’s primary goals was to bring awareness and introduce education innovation. Chong explained that the topic is very important for the University’s DSAV, CS and NSM students, as many of them are doing research, working with data and sensitive data at various organizations for jobs and internships, and using computers.

“Instead of traditionally just bringing in someone to talk about cybersecurity in general, our goal was to make this relevant to the students to build awareness, address on the national security level the lack of cybersecurity education in schools, and an approach to work on better securing our campus,” Chong said. “In addition, we are planning to take an innovative educational approach by actually demonstrating how easy it is to hack and simulate how bad a cyberattack can be to an organization.”

The landscape of cybersecurity is indeed dynamic and ever-evolving. Experts agree that a collaborative, proactive approach—comprising technological innovation, regulatory compliance and ongoing education—is essential to safeguarding our digital world against the relentless tide of cyber threats.

“There was a lot of information, which was hard to keep up with,” said data science and visualization major LaVelle White ’26. “He explained pretty well how hackers get into systems, even though I can’t hack, but I understood the concept.”

SPICE Institute Peppered with Data

Monthlong seminar focuses on helping students understand data 

Data science continues to evolve as one of the most promising and in-demand disciplines, and budding data scientists are all too happy to explore the field … one byte at a time. Just ask Rylan Chong, Ph.D., Chaminade’s Data Science Program Director.

“Chaminade received approval in 2018 to launch a Data Science major, which was the first of its kind in Hawaii,” Chong says. “And we had our first cohort of 40-50 students in 2019. Now our classes are practically maxed out each semester.”

This summer, 35 students participated in the Supporting Pacific Indigenous Computing Excellence (SPICE) Data Science Summer Institute—from June 2-30—marking the largest number of participants since SPICE’s inception five years ago. Funded by a National Science Foundation grant, and in partnership with the Texas Advanced Computing Center, SPICE aims to level the playing field for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) students, who are woefully underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, and specifically cutting-edge data science.

Of the 35 SPICE Data Science Institute participants, 19 of them were Silverswords.
Of the 35 SPICE program participants, 19 of them were Silverswords.

“We want to advance computing and data for social change and justice,” says Chong, who graduated with a bachelor’s in Computer Science from Chaminade in 2010, and with a doctorate in Information Security from Purdue University of West Lafayette in 2018. “We want to work with our community partners and upscale people’s knowledge about the use of data.”

SPICE participants include 22 undergraduate students from Hawaii, including 19 from Chaminade University. The remaining eight undergraduates hail from the Northern Marianas College (5), Mount Mercy University in Iowa, University of Portland and Guam Community College. Five undergraduate student mentors also were involved.

“Not to sound cliché, but data science is everywhere,” says Biology Assistant Professor Chrystie K. Naeole, Ph.D. “Students get to mesh science with data science, and to look at disparities among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.”

With one of the largest wealth gaps in the nation, high rates of incarceration, and high rates of illness and health disparity, Hawaii has a compelling need to address social justice issues. Students of Hawaiian descent have something they want to fix because they see the inequality every day in their families and their communities, from health and homelessness to the environment and sustainable energy.

Of the 35 SPICE Data Science Institute participants, 19 of them were Silverswords.
Participants collaborated on research projects even during lunch.

“Most people have a passion. Most people care about something significant, something that they have a personal connection to,” says Kelly Gaither, director of Health Analytics at TACC and Associate Professor in Women’s Health at the Dell Medical School. “When you have a personal connection, it’s like a glue. It allows other concepts that you need to stick. In the absence of that glue, students may not realize they’d be happy working in computer science or data science because of the way it’s taught and presented to them.”

Chong believes we already apply data science in our daily routines. We compare prices, for example, when we’re shopping for groceries. We’ll shop at stores that offer better deals. Think of Longs Drugs on a Sunday or Safeway on $5 Fridays. We compare quantity and quality, a generic brand versus brand name.

“You can apply data science to every field—education, healthcare and mental health, environment science and climate change, and criminal justice,” Chong explains. “It’s not just about crunching numbers, but ensuring the numbers reflect different viewpoints and getting those numbers into the right hands.”

A 2022 Chaminade University alumna with a degree in Data Science, Analytics and Visualization and one-time SPICE participant, Zoey Kaneakua is now a data analyst with the Department of the Attorney General’s Crime Prevention and Justice Assistance Division. And her job: To monitor crime statistics in Hawaii and to share the data with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), an incident-based reporting system in which law enforcement collects data on each crime occurrence.

Zoey Kaneakua '22 at her computer
Zoey Kaneakua ’22 now works for the Department of the Attorney General’s Crime Prevention and Justice Assistance Division

“That was my first independent research involving juvenile justice,” recalls Kaneakua of her participation in SPICE during her junior year. “And I think I built my first dashboard in three days using Python (a high-level, general-purpose programming language).”

Like Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) of the past, data science was barely mentioned a decade ago in scientific circles. Now it’s everywhere. In the same way that A.I. is an umbrella term for intelligence, Data Science is an umbrella term for insights from data.  Sometimes these two terms appear to be in conflict or competition, but this is not the case. The field of data and machine intelligence is vast and involves everything from understanding data to helping computers learn from the data and solve problems automatically using their learnings. Arguably, both Data Science and A.I. are critical for businesses and maintain a complicated symbiotic relationship.

“The underlying theme of SPICE is about building capacity and learning communities in the Pacific to harness the power of technology and data to address challenges,” Chong says, borrowing from the National Science Foundation’s Harnessing the Data Revolution initiative. “We focus on social aspects, applied ethics and responsibility working with people and data.”

In their final projects, SPICE participants studied various issues, from Indo-Pacific Resilience and Hawaii Biodiversity to Tax and Housing Equity and Health.

“All their projects were based on the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals,” Chong said. “These students upskilled in analytics, research and programming. We also had a lot of firsts this year. To name a few, it included an opportunity to use the TACC supercomputers at the University of Texas at Austin; we had technical directors who joined us in helping on sponsored projects; and three students presented their projects in their preferred or native language that included Spanish, Carolinian and Native Hawaiian.”

Inaugural President’s Innovation Award

Two faculty members who spearheaded out-of-the-box programs aimed at expanding educational opportunities to more members of the community and broadening the university’s positive impact were honored recently with the inaugural President’s Innovation Awards at Chaminade.

The recipients were:

  • Dr. Rylan Chong, assistant professor of Data Science, for his student-powered computing program that seeks to put data analytics in the hands of community members. Through a pilot program, his students worked with grassroots groups on the Waianae Coast to develop a community sentiment dashboard aimed at measuring well-being and health metrics.
  • Dr. Janet Davidson, vice provost and professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, for overseeing the successful design and launch of a Chaminade associate’s degree program at a Hawaii prison—the only Second Chance Pell Program currently offered in the state.
Dr. Rylan Chong posing with Dr. Lynn Babington

Chaminade President Dr. Lynn Babington said all of those nominated for the awards, and especially those who won, underscore how innovation is woven into Chaminade’s DNA. “The pandemic has added no shortage of challenges to our work at Chaminade, but it has also shown the power of innovation in helping us to meet our social service mission and expand our important work,” Babington said.

“I am so honored to say our campus is full of innovators—members of our Silversword ‘ohana who understand that today’s new ideas and new approaches are tomorrow’s successes and best practices.”

The Center for Strategy and Innovation created the President’s Innovation Award program and announced a call for nominations in September 2021. Winners were announced at a Spring Kickoff event for faculty and staff members celebrating the beginning of the new term.

Dr. Helen Turner, vice president for strategy and innovation at Chaminade, described the selection process as rigorous and said a five-member committee reviewed nominations and chose the recipients.

Both awardees said they were honored and humbled by the recognition.

Dr. Janet Davidson with her certificate for the inaugural President's Innovation Award

“I am truly grateful,” Chong said. “Receiving this award acknowledges how data science can unite communities, break down silos and social stereotypes about STEM disciplines, and be a field to catalyze social good. I want to personally thank the Waianae Coast community for their support.”

Chong added that he was particularly proud of the hands-on experiences students got throughout the course of the project—from interviewing community members to presenting their findings and continuously adding to and revising the dashboard as a “living tool” for stakeholders.

“Students made connections on how and when to use the data science and project management skills and tools they learned in their classes toward a real and relevant project,” Chong said. “They also learned a lot of soft skills, networking and working with a diverse group of people with various backgrounds to get real-world experience. And our shared work on this project continues.”

Davidson said the innovation award is a “rewarding validation” of all the work that’s gone into the Second Chance Pell Program, whose first cohort has 14 students. “This award is a reminder of the team behind this. It reminds me of how thankful I am that there has been university support all around. So many people support the mission of this program and its alignment with Chaminade’s values.”

She noted the COVID pandemic meant that faculty members and staff delivering the program were required to quickly pivot so they could continue to meet student needs and program expectations. “This honor means a lot,” she said. “And I look forward to seeing who is honored next year.”