O'Connor, TJ
TJ O'Connor
Assistant Professor | College of Engineering and Science - Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Cybersecurity Program Chair
Contact Information
Personal Overview
Dr. O’Connor’s research has centered on computer security, emphasizing cybersecurity education, the security and privacy of IoT devices, wireless protocols, software-defined networking, and machine learning approaches for security. He has authored a book in the area and published his research in the proceedings of several academic conferences. Dr. O’Connor served 20 years as an US Army Officer, retiring in 2019 at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. His service included an academic appointment to the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the US Military Academy and four assignments supporting the Special Forces from the tactical level in Afghanistan and culminated as the Chief Information Officer for the 1st Special Forces Command Headquarters. Dr. O’Connor is active in cyber security competitions and is the current coach for the FITSec Cybersecurity Team and previously coached the US Cyber Games Team.
Educational Background
- Ph.D., Computer Science, NC State University, 2019
- M.S., Computer Science, NC State University, 2008
- M.S., Information Security Engineering, SANS Technology Institute, 2012
- B.S., Computer Science, US Military Academy at West Point, 1999
Professional Experience
- Chief Information Officer, 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne)
- Group Signal Officer, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne)
- Battalion Signal Officer, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne)
- Assistant Professor, EECS Dept, US Military Academy
Current Courses
- CSE 3801: Introduction to Cybersecurity (Course Rewrite)
- CSE 3810: Cyber Defense Fundamentals (Course Author)
- CSE 4820: Mobile/Wireless Security (Course Author)
- CSE 4830: Binary Reverse Engineering (Course Rewrite)
- CSE 4840: Cyber Offense Fundamentals (Course Author)
- CSE 4850: Vulnerability Research (Course Rewrite)
- CSE 4510: Designing Cybersecurity Games (Course Author)
- CSE 5401: Independent Study
- CYB 5998: Capstone Research
Courses Previously Taught at US Military Academy, West Point NY
- CS485F: Digital Forensics
- CS482: Information Assurance
- IT485E: Computer Exploitation
- IT305: Theory and Practice of Military Information Technology Systems
- IT105/155: Introduction to Computing and Information Technology
Selected Publications
TJ OConnor, Alex Schmith, Chris Stricklan, Marco Carvalho, Sneha Sudhakaran. Pwn Lessons Made Easy With Docker: Toward an Undergraduate Vulnerability Research Cybersecurity Class. Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 24), Portland, OR, March 2024. [bib]
Curtice Gough, Carl Mann, Cherrise Ficke, Maureen Namukasa, Meredith Carroll, TJ OConnor. Remote Controlled Cyber: Toward Engaging and Educating a Diverse Cybersecurity Workforce. Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 24), Portland, OR, March 2024. [bib]
Kourtnee Fernalld, TJ OConnor, Sneha Sudhakaran, Nasheen Nur. Lightweight Symphony: Towards Reducing Computer Science Student Anxiety with Standardized Docker Environments. Special Interest Group on Information Technology Education (SIGITE 23), Marietta, GA, October 2023. [bib] [pdf]
TJ OConnor, Dane Brown, Jasmine Jackson, Suzaan Schmeelk, Bryson Payne. Compete to Learn: Toward Cybersecurity As A Sport. In The Journal of Cybersecurity Education Research and Practice (JCERP), Kennesaw, GA, 2023 [bib] [pdf]
Maria Chaparro Osman, Maureen Namukasa, Cherrise Ficke, Isabella Piasecki, TJ OConnor, Meredith Carroll. Understanding how to diversify the cybersecurity workforce: A qualitative analysis. In The Journal of Cybersecurity Education Research and Practice (JCERP), Kennesaw, GA, 2023 [bib] [pdf]
TJ OConnor, Dylan Jessee, and Daniel Campos. Towards Examining The Security Cost of Inexpensive Smart Home IoT Devices. IEEE International Workshop on Consumer Devices, Systems, and Services (CDS 2023), Torino, Italy, June 2023. [bib] [pdf]
Stian Olsen and TJ OConnor. Toward a Labeled Dataset of IoT Malware Features. IEEE Computers, Software, and Applications Conference (COMPSAC 2023), Torino, Italy, June 2023. [bib] [pdf]
Parth Ganeriwala, Anubhav Gupta, Daniel Campos, Siddhartha Bhattacharyya, TJ OConnor, Adolf Dcosta. Modeling Internet-of-Things (IoT) Behavior for Enforcing Security and Privacy Policies. In Computing Conference 2023, London, UK, June 2023. [pdf]
Ahmed Alhazm, Khulud Alawaji, and TJ OConnor. MPO: MQTT-Based Privacy Orchestrator for Smart Home Users. In Computers, Software, and Applications Conference (COMPSAC), Virtual Event, July 2022. IEEE. [bib] [pdf]
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]
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]
Ahmed Alhazmi, Ghassen Kilani, William Allen, and TJ OConnor. A replication Study for IoT Privacy Preferences. IEEE Conference on Omni-Layer Intelligent Systems (COINS). August 2021 [bib] [pdf]
TJ OConnor, Dylan Jesse, and Daniel Camps. Through the Spyglass: Toward IoT Companion App Man-in-the-Middle Attacks. USENIX Cyber Security Experimentation and Test Workshop (CSET). August 2021. [bib] [pdf]
Daniel Campos, TJ OConnor. Towards Labeling On-Demand IoT Traffic. USENIX Cyber Security Experimentation and Test Workshop (CSET). August 2021. [bib] [pdf]
TJ OConnor, Chris Stricklan. Teaching a Hands-On Mobile and Wireless Cybersecurity Course. ACM Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE). June 2021. (acceptance rate=31%) [bib] [pdf]
Chris Stricklan, TJ OConnor. Towards Binary Diversified Challenges For A Hands-On Reverse Engineering Course. ACM Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE). June 2021. (acceptance rate=31%) [bib] [pdf]
Blake Janes, Heather Crawford, and TJ OConnor. Never Ending Story: Authentication and Access Control Design Flaws in Shared IoT Devices. 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, Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks (WiSec), May, 2019. (acceptance rate=25.6%, Best Paper) [bib] [pdf]
TJ OConnor, Reham Mohamed, Markus Miettinen, William Enck, Bradley Reaves, and Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi. HomeSnitch: Behavior Transparency and Control for Smart Home IoT Devices, Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks (WiSec), May, 2019. (acceptance rate=25.6%) [bib] [pdf]
TJ OConnor, Wiliam Enck, W.M. Petullo, and Akash Verma. PivotWall: SDN-Based Information Flow Control. Symposium on SDN Research (SoSR). March 2018. (acceptance rate=28.6%) [bib] [pdf]
Recognition & Awards
- PI, NSA: GenCyber Cyber Camp $149,724.
- Co-P.I., ORAU Innovation Award: Cyber Heroines Cybersecurity Competition $4,000.
- Co-P.I., Office of Naval Research: Educational Approaches and Curriculum to Engage and Educate a More Diverse Cybersecurity Workforce $746,929.
- Co-P.I., Office of Naval Research: Multidisciplinary Approach to Internet-of-Things (IoT) Cybersecurity Research $249,946.
Research
- Cybersecurity education (Cyber Operations Concentration)
- Security and privacy of IoT devices (IoT S&P Lab)
- Software-defined networking