Contact Information

email: mlocasto AT gmu edu
phone: +1 (703) 993 1773
   (I rarely check this voicemail)
land mail: Computer Science Dept.
   Engineering Building, Rm 5337
   4400 University Drive, MS 4A5
   Fairfax, VA 22030, USA
office hours: Sunday, 6am to 9am
   or by appointment

Research & Interests

My CV has up-to-date details on my academic career, classes I have taught, and research papers I have been involved in writing. You can also read a brief, formal bio blurb.

I enjoy (in no particular order) reading, fishing, chess, hard work, football, MLB, cooking, and politics.

Recent Projects & Activities

• The Hacker Curriculum
• Visiting the SFU SYNAR Lab, Summer 2009
• Feasibility Study: Estimating the Potential for Parallelizing Legacy Binary Code
• SISMAT 2009: Secure Information Systems Mentoring and Training (2008 news release)
• The Comment Mentor
• Program Committee, NDSS 2010
• Program Committee, VMSec 2009
• Program Committee, WISA 2009
• Program Committee, ESORICS 2009
• Program Committee, NSPW 2009

I am currently an I3P Fellow and Research Assistant Professor in Computer Science at George Mason University. I am also affiliated with the GMU Center for Secure Information Systems.

My research is supported by a grant from DARPA and by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and NIST via an I3P (Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection) Fellowship.

I'm actively searching for students to work closely with. If you or someone you know has an interest in information systems security, drop me a line (but first see this advice). No experience necessary; we'll train you. I'll be posting information about my current research projects soon. I'm also happy to work with undergraduates both from GMU and elsewhere over the summer via NSF REU's. GMU students should consult the GMU Honor Code.

I study the security of computer systems. More precisely, I try to understand why it seems difficult to build secure systems and how we can get better at it. I'm particularly interested in making software defense mechanisms automatic, correct, and efficient.