Senior thesis. I would define it as a final statement that is supposed to be a culmination of all the lessons one has learned in their undergraduate time. My senior thesis in Data Science will do exactly that.

There was one essential question that I asked myself at the beginning of my thesis brainstorming journey, “How can I tie my Data Science major in with cybersecurity?” Not just in some arbitrary way – but in a way that does justice to both disciplines. Showing significant thought and capabilities in intertwining each.

The final idea became malware analysis. The idea was inspired by the work that I have been doing in the IT Department. A lot of the software relies on signature-based information to determine maliciousness. That information comes from libraries that researchers and analysts provide. Understanding a little bit more about what it takes to accomplish a thorough analysis with statistical progress can help me have a more informed approach to my cyber endeavors. On top of that – I really outdid myself in terms of progress for my Statistical Inference course this semester. My engagement with the content and statistical testing had me thinking that I can give it a shot to do my own research and come up with conclusions.

Well…I had an extra credit that I needed.

My proposal for internship credit centered around six, five-page essays around different cybersecurity topics. This was originally a way for me to learn about networking concepts on my own. The malware analysis itself was going to be intertwined with system performance – and well, I needed to be able to decipher what normal behavior from different parts of the system looked like.

That intention didn’t change with time. I have just intertwined my thesis with it. I want to use my summer research to enrich my initial preliminary findings prior to my research. That way there is substantial information on the intention of the research (15 pages min.) before analysis methodologies are discussed.