Education

North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

Ph.D., Computer Science, May 2019

Dissertation: Network Access Control through Host and Application Analysis

Advisor: Dr. William Enck

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North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

M.S., Computer Science, May 2008

Thesis: Bluetooth Misuse Detection

Advisor: Dr. Douglas Reeves

 

SANS Technology Institute, Bethesda, MD

M.S., Information Security Engineering, 2012

Focus: Digital Forensics

Advisor: Dr. Ray Davidson

 

US Military Academy, West Point, NY

B.S., Computer Science, May 1999

Thesis: Denial of Service Prevention

Advisor: Dr. Jim Jensen

 

Academic and Research Appointments

 

Program Chair, Information Assurance and Cybersecurity, Florida Tech, 2019-Present

Assistant Professor, Computer Sciences and Cybersecurity, Florida Tech, 2019-Present

Department Head, Army ROTC, Military Studies, Florida Tech, 2015-2019

Assistant Professor, US Military Academy, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2010-2011

Instructor, US Military Academy, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2008-2010

 

Military Assignments

 

Asst. Chief of Staff, G6 Communications, 1st Special Forces Command, 2014-2015

Directorate Signal Officer, Office of Special Warfare, 2013-2014

Group Signal Officer, 10th Special Forces Group, 2011-2013

Battalion Signal Officer, 1/7 Special Forces Battalion, 2003-2006

Battalion Signal Officer, 1/2 Attack Helicopter Battalion, 2000-2002

Platoon Leader, 57th Signal Battalion, 1999-2000

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Selected Publications

 

TJ OConnor, Carl Mann, Tiffanie Petersen, Isaiah Thomas, and Chris Stricklan. Toward an Automatic Exploit Generation Competition for an Undergraduate Binary Reverse Engineering Course.  In Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE), Dublin, Ireland, July 2022. ACM. (acceptance rate=29%) [bib] [pdf​]

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TJ OConnor. HELO DarkSide: Breaking free from katas and embracing the adversarial mindset in cybersecurity education. In Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), Providence, RI, March 2022. ACM. [bib] [pdf]

 

TJ OConnor, Chris Stricklan. Teaching a Hands-On Mobile and Wireless Cybersecurity Course. In ACM Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE). June 2021. (acceptance rate=31%) [bib] [pdf]

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Blake Janes, Heather Crawford, and TJ OConnor. Never Ending Story: Authentication and Access Control Design Flaws in Shared IoT Devices. In IEEE Security and Privacy SafeThings Workshop (SafeThings). May 2020. [bib] [pdf]

 

TJ OConnor, William Enck, and Bradley Reaves. Blinded and Confused: Uncovering Systemic Flaws in Device Telemetry for Smart-Home Internet of Things. In ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks (WiSec), May 2019.  (acceptance rate=25.6%, Best Paper)   [bib] [pdf]

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TJ OConnor, Reham Mohamed, Markus Miettinen, William Enck, Bradley Reaves, and Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi. HomeSnitch: Behavior Transparency and Control for Smart Home IoT Devices. In ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks (WiSec), May 2019. (acceptance rate=25.6%) [bib] [pdf]

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TJ OConnor, William Enck, W.M. Petullo, and Akash Verma. "PivotWall: SDN-Based Information Flow Control", In Symposium on SDN Research (SoSR), March 2018. (acceptance rate=28.6%) [bib] [pdf]

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TJ OConnor, Ben Sangster. “honeyM: A Framework for Implementing Virtual Honeyclients for Mobile Devices,” In ACM Conference on Wireless Network Security (WiSec), March 2010. (acceptance rate=21%) [bib] [pdf]

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TJ OConnor, Doug Reeves, “Bluetooth Network-Based Misuse Detection,” In Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC), December 2008. (acceptance rate=24%) [bib] [pdf]

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Service

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• Co-Chair, The Human Element in Autonomous Cyber Security Workshop (2021)

• Organizing Committee, ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) (2024)

• Program Committee, USENIX Workshop on Cyber Security Experimentation and Test (2020,2021)

• Program Committee, Silicon Valley Cybersecurity Conference (2021, 2022, 2023)

• Program Committee, ACM Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE) (2022, 2023)

• Program Committee, ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) (2022)

• Program Committee, Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks (WISEC) (2023)

• Program Committee,  IoT Security and Cyber Threat Intelligence (2023)

• Program Committee, International Workshop on Cyberspace Security and Artificial Intelligence (CAI)(2023) 

• Reviewer, ACM Transactions on Internet of Things (2019/2020), 

• Reviewer, ACM Transactions on Security and Privacy (2020)

• Reviewer, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (2020)

• Reviewer, ACM Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (2021)

• Reviewer, National Science Foundation (NSF) (2x, 2022)

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Honors

 

• Teaching Award, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Florida Tech, 2023.

• Best Student Paper Award, Computing Conference, 2023

• Professor of the Year Award, Florida Tech Student Government Association, 2022

• Best Faculty Award, International Student Community of Florida Tech, 2020.

• Best Paper Award, ACM WiSec, 2019. 

• National Cybersecurity Innovation Award, March 2013

• Excellence in Education: Clark K Ray Award, US Military Academy D/EECS, May 2010

• Bronze Star, Operation Enduring Freedom, US Army, June 2004

• Bronze Order of Mercury, US Army Signal Regiment, May 2010

• Cyber Challenge Champion, National Defense University, 2009

• National Cyber League Championships Winning Coach, 2021, 2022

• NSA Cyber Defense Exercise Winning Co-Coach, 2009, 2011

• SANS Netwars Competition Record High Score, 2012

 

Affiliations

 

• Upsilon Pi Epsilon Honor Society

• Special Operations Support (K9) Identifier

• Association for Computers and Machinery, Member

• Wolfpack Security and Privacy Research Lab

 

Professional Activities

 

• Head Coach, US Cyber Games National Team, 2021-2022 Season

• SANS Institute Cyber Guardian Red and Blue Teams, 2011-Present

• Northeast Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NECCDC), Red Team, 2010-2011

• Southeast Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (SECCDC), Red Team, 2016-2019

• Cyber Patriot (National Youth Cyber Education Program), Mentor, 2015-2016

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Public Speaking

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TJ OConnor. A Case Against Smart Things, Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) Conference, Melbourne, FL, February 24, 2023.

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TJ OConnor. Keynote Address, 780th Military Intelligence Brigade Ball, Baltimore, MD. December 3rd, 2022.

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TJ OConnor, Katie Moussouris, Colin Ahern. Crowdsourcing CyberConflict. AvengerCon, Columbia, MD. December 3rd, 2022.

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TJ OConnor. Pwn My Ride: Aarch64 Return Oriented Programming, Guest Lecture, US Naval Academy. Annapolis, MD. November 29th, 2022.

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TJ OConnor. A Case Against Smart Things, Tampa Armed Forces Communications Association, Tampa, FL, October 19, 2022.

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TJ OConnor. Keynote Address, Central Florida Cybersecurity Summit. Lake Mary, FL, October 7th, 2022.

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TJ OConnor. Modern Cyberwarfare: Lessons from the Ukrainian Conflict. Invited Guest Speaker. 1st Special Forces Command Communications Conference. Tampa, FL, Sept 14, 2022.

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TJ OConnor, Dane Brown, Suzaana Schmelk. Going for the Gold! Insights and Lessons Learned from Coaching the First-ever US Cyber Games Team, NICE Conference and Expo, June 7, 2022.

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TJ OConnor. The Picture is Incomplete. Fort Gordon Innovation Day Guest Speaker, May 17, 2022.

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TJ OConnor. A Case Against Smart Things: Reversing IoT Devices for Vulnerabilities. St. Johns University, November 2021.

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TJ OConnor. The Threat of Ransomware: What Does it Mean for small businesses? Service Academy Monthly Invited Speaker. Virtual Event, September 2021.

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TJ OConnor. Towards Labeled IoT Datasets. NSA CAE-R Workshop. Virtual Event, September 2021.

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TJ OConnor, Jasmine Jackson. The Road to Athens: What Does it take to Lead the US cyber team to victory? Redefining education with TJ OConnor and Jasmine Jackson. ITSP Magazine Podcast, September 2021.

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TJ OConnor, Daniel Campos, Dylan Jessee. IoT Dataset Findings IoT Man-in-the-Middle Vulnerabilities. Presented Technical Cyber Technology Branch, CO2 Division, C5ISR Center, May 2021.

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TJ OConnor, Daniel Campos, Dylan Jessee. IoT Dataset Findings IoT Man-in-the-Middle Vulnerabilities. Presented to US Army Cyber Command, May 2021.

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TJ OConnor. Backdoors in IoT Devices: Accidental or Intentional. Podcast Interview with REFirmLabs (now acquired by Microsoft), May 2021.

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TJ OConnor. Examining IoT Security Weaknesses. Device Security IO Podcast, March 2021.

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TJ OConnor. A Case Against Smart Things: Reversing IoT Devices for Vulnerabilities. At Southwest Florida Information Security Conference. Virtual Event, February 2021.

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TJ OConnor, Daniel Campos. Students help build the IoT lab in their cybersecurity program. A conversation with Florida Techs Dr. TJ OConnor and Daniel Campos. ITSP Magazine Podcast, January 2021.

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TJ OConnor, Daniel Campos. Vulnerabilities in Commercial Smart Home Cameras and Doorbells. Presented to US Army Cyber Command, Dec 2020.

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TJ OConnor, Daniel Campos. The implication of IoT SPI Flash Attacks. Presented to Technical Cyber Technology Branch, CO2 Division, C5ISR Center, Oct 2020.

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TJ OConnor, Daniel Campos. Methods for Labeling IoT Traffic Datasets. Presented to Technical Cyber Technology Branch, CO2 Division, C5ISR Center, Oct 2020.

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TJ OConnor, Will Enck. "Classifying and Enforcing Network Profiles of Smart Home IoT Devices", SELIoT: SEcuring Lifecycle of Internet of Things, Aalto University, Finland, September 2017.

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TJ OConnor. "Ethical and Technical Considerations of the FBI's iPhone Writ", US Military Academy Cyber Defense Laboratory Invited Guest Speaker, March 2016. 

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TJ OConnor and David Burhop, "The Hacker Always Gets Through," American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, Louisville, KY, June 2016. (Slides)

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TJ OConnor. “Why Every Defender Should Know How To Write Exploits,” B-Sides Augusta Security Conference, Augusta, GA, September 2013.

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TJ OConnor “Don’t Pull Your Goalie: The Role of an Active Defense,” ForenSecure Security Conference, Wheaton, IL, April 2013.

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TJ OConnor and Tim Tomes. “Hide and Seek: Post-Exploitation Style,” ShmooCon Security Conference, Washington DC, February 2013. (Video)

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O’Connor, T.J., Wertheimer, M., DiGiovanni, F., Papay, M., Brown, J., and Mahaffey, K., “Cyber Security Training,” I/ITSEC 2013, Orlando, FL, December 2012.

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O’Connor, T.J., Bassel, E., Carroll, O, Denman, B., Fanelli, R., and Runyan, S., “Keys to Fighting and Winning a Cyber War,” AFCEA Homeland Security Conference 2012, Washington DC, February 2012.

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O’Connor, T.J., Grunzweig, N., and Brasefield, D., “honeyM: A Framework for Implementing Virtual Honeyclients for Mobile Devices,” ShmooCon Security Conference, Washington DC, February 2010.