{"id":124462,"date":"2026-02-26T21:34:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/124462\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T21:34:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:34:06","slug":"student-researchers-drive-cybersecurity-innovation-at-university-of-scranton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/124462\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Researchers Drive Cybersecurity Innovation at University of Scranton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Another featured student was Buse Onat \u201926, a triple major in cybercrime\/homeland security, criminal justice and philosophy. Like Ciaccio, Onat is also pursuing a master\u2019s in cybercrime investigation and cybersecurity through the University\u2019s accelerated program.<\/p>\n<p>Partnering with Sinchul Back, Ph.D., associate professor, Onat explored how digital guardianship \u2014 from secure passwords to AI-driven anomaly detection \u2014 reduces fraud risk in credit card transactions. Onat and Dr. Back\u2019s hands-on research included studying more than 568,000 anonymized credit card transactions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWorking with Dr. Back has been one of the best parts of my time at Scranton,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/gradadmissions.scranton.edu\/blog\/articles\/online-learning\/credit-card-fraud-detection-cybersecurity-student-research.shtml\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Onat said<\/a>. \u201cIt gave me real research experience and showed me how classroom knowledge applies to real problems. \u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat perspective has helped me think more critically and practically as a grad student.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Ciaccio and Onat are simultaneously managing rigorous undergraduate and graduate work, Noah Mumma \u201925 is a recent graduate who is solely pursuing a master\u2019s degree in cybercrime investigation and cybersecurity.<\/p>\n<p>Working closely with Dr. Onat, Mumma has conducted outside-the-box research on cybercriminals\u2019 behaviors and motivations. These individuals, Mumma said, often target states with higher median household incomes and greater internet access.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis suggests cybercriminals are more concerned with overall income and digital connectivity than physical infrastructure,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/gradadmissions.scranton.edu\/blog\/articles\/online-learning\/cybersecurity-student-research-ransomware.shtml\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Mumma said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ciaccio, Onat and Mumma are entering a growing field, as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/ooh\/computer-and-information-technology\/information-security-analysts.htm\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a> reports a projected 29% increase in security analyst jobs from 2024 to 2034.<\/p>\n<p>According to the most recent <a href=\"https:\/\/news.scranton.edu\/articles\/2025\/09\/news-first-destination-survey-classof24.shtml\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Roche Family Center for Career Development\u2019s Class of 2024 First Destination Survey,<\/a> University of Scranton cybercrime and homeland security majors entered the field with an average starting salary of $70,122. Graduate students who earned master\u2019s degrees in cybercrime investigation and cybersecurity had an average starting salary of $82,710.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cScranton\u2019s program stands out because it teaches not only technical skills to defend against cyberattacks, but also computer crime law and cybercrime criminology,\u201d Mumma said. \u201cThis gives students a lot more experience with different roles they can eventually apply for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For more information, please visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scranton.edu\/academics\/cas\/soc-cj\/programs\/cybercrime-homeland-security\/index.shtml\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">University\u2019s cybercrime and homeland security undergraduate page<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/gradadmissions.scranton.edu\/programs\/masters-cybercrime-investigation-and-cybersecurity\/index.shtml\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">the University\u2019s cybercrime investigation and cybersecurity master\u2019s program webpage<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another featured student was Buse Onat \u201926, a triple major in cybercrime\/homeland security, criminal justice and philosophy. Like&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2892,22267,2962,58371,178,180,179,274],"class_list":["post-124462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-criminal-justice","tag-cybercrime","tag-cybersecurity","tag-graduate-degree","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-the-university-of-scranton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}