Charlie Obimbo

Education and Employment Background

Dr. Charlie Obimbo received his PhD from the University of New Brunswick in 2000. He has worked as an Assistant Professor at the University of New Brunswick and the University of Prince Edward Island. Obimbo joined the School of Computer Science at the University of Guelph in 2007 where he is now an Associate Professor.

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Research Themes

Obimbo’s research focuses on computer systems security and intrusion detection and prevention systems. He aims to create effective systems which can detect and protect network intrusions effectively and in reasonable time. This is an important area in computer security as evidenced by recent events including the heist of over 80 million US dollars from several banks in South Africa by over 100 people in Japan through ATMs, the alleged meddling in the recent US elections, and from the hacking into and releasing of the DNC email. With customers of banks and various entities feeling vulnerable, consumer confidence is bound to go down and this can adversely affect the economy worldwide. Key areas of focus include:

1. Network security. Obmibo’s main area of focus has been using AI classification methods such as Support Vector Machines, Deep Learning and k-nearest neighbours to classify network payloads and develop a-priori detection and prevention of malicious payloads on the network.
2. Encryption and cryptanalysis. This topic is also timely, with the ubiquitous use of mobile devices, and the attempt, both by federal agents and criminals to hack and have back-doors to our devices (whether for purposes of security or malice).
3. Privacy. The third aspect of Obimbo’s research is using differential privacy (epsillon-differential privacy) to ensure continued privacy and anonymity when large datasets are used from individual data in research.

Highlights

• Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship, Institute of International Education, Washington, DC, 2014, 2016
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Research & Development grant, 2019
• Editor, International Journal for Informational Security Research, 2011-2014
• NSERC Discovery grant, 2009