UA Little Rock Graduate Advances AI Research to Aid National Security

Spencer Massengale, a University of Arkansas at Little Rock doctoral student from Russellville, is set to graduate with a Ph.D. in information science, marking a significant achievement in AI research aimed at protecting critical infrastructure.

With a background in cybersecurity from Arkansas Tech University, Massengale's work gained momentum with the release of ChatGPT-3.5, enabling him to develop innovative applications for the Emerging Threat Information Sharing and Analysis Center at UA Little Rock.

Under the mentorship of Dr. Philip Huff, associate professor of cybersecurity, Massengale conducted research, supported by a Department of Energy grant, that not only led to a series of research papers but also delivered essential tools now in use by utility companies to strengthen national security.

"My time as a student at UA Little Rock has been great," Massengale said. "All of the classes are research- and project-based. Dr. Huff has been awesome, and I was able to travel with him to explore the Idaho National Labs. Working with the undergraduate students at the Emerging Threat Information Sharing and Analysis Center is very cool. They get to write actual software for programs and see how those programs work in the real world. I would have died for an opportunity like that when I was an undergraduate student."

Massengale has presented his research at the EAI International Conference on Security and Privacy in Communication Networks, Intelligence Cybersecurity Conference, and the IEEE International Conference on Trust, Privacy, and Security in Intelligent Systems and Applications. In 2023, he received the Best Graduate Research Assistant Award from the Department of Computer Science.

In is dissertation, "Enhancing Cybersecurity Strategies through Automated Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) Extraction with LLMs, Risk Prioritization, and Privacy-Conscious Information Sharing," Massengale worked with large language models to create a more streamlined way to extract cyber threat intelligence from companies. This information is used to create profiles for businesses that tell them what types of risk they are at for ransomware attacks and other cybersecurity threats based on CTI, geographic location, and industry sector.

Massengale's dissertation also worked to promote the sharing of cyber threat intelligence among companies by creating a privacy filter that alerts companies if they are sharing private information within cyber threat intelligence.

"Since adversaries tend to target the same type of companies, it's useful for similar companies in the same industry to share threat intelligence with each other," he said. "Due to the sensitive nature of cyber threat intelligence, companies could accidentally expose private information to their competitors. This privacy filter will alert companies if they are about to share information that is private or personally identifiable information."

Massengale was inspired to attend UA Little Rock after his father Rick Massengale, Sr., who is now president of North Arkansas Community College, also earned a Ph.D. in information technology from UA Little Rock. While Massengale said he is interested in teaching college in the future, he doesn't think following in his father's footsteps to become a college president is on the table. Among other family milestones, Massengale also welcomed his first child, a baby boy named Copeland, to his family six months ago.

As a graduate student, Massengale also worked part-time at Bastazo, an AI cybersecurity startup company created by Huff and three professors at the University of Arkansas. After successfully defending his dissertation on Oct. 31, Massengale started a full-time job as a software developer at Bastazo.

His advice for students to be successful is to: "Connect with other students and find a community. Connect with professors because they always know what is going on. Don't take shortcuts, and don't give up."