cyber

Welcome!

I host most of my course content and other personal items on this website. My MSU course pages can be found below.

About Me

I am an instructor at Montana State University in the Gianforte School of Computing where I primarily teach programming and cybersecurity-related classes. I grew up in Billings, Montana before moving to Bozeman to start school. I did my undergraduate and graduate school at Montana State University. My background and interests fall under the realm of Cybersecurity, Network Security, Malware Analysis & Detection, and Cybercrime. I spent most my time in graduate school researching graph-based malware detection and categorization techniques under the supervision of Dr. Clemente Izurieta.

Beyond academia, I've spent time working for TechLink, a DoD software licensing and transfer company, Hoplite Industries, a Bozeman-based cybersecurity solutions company, and the United States Air Force, where I worked on testing and calibration software for a ground radar system.



My CV can be found here. (Last Updated: July 2024)
Mountain Reflection

Teaching

Below are the classes that I most commonly teach at Montana State University. Click on one of them to go to course website for the most recent offering.

CSCI 127
Joy and Beauty of Data

Introduction to programming and problem solving with Python! Functions, conditionals, loops, lists, files, dictionaries, object-oriented programming, and data science modules





CSCI 132
Basic Data Structures and Algorithms

An examination of advanced Java and basic data structures and their application in problem solving. Data structures include stacks, queues and lists. An introduction to algorithms employing the data structures to solve various problems including searching and sorting, and recursion. Understanding and using Java class libraries. The laboratory uses Java. Introduces Big-O Notation

CSCI 232
Data Structures and Algorithms

Advanced data structures and programming techniques and their application. Topics include: trees, balanced trees, graphs, dictionaries, hash tables, heaps. Examines the efficiency and correctness of algorithms.

CSCI 460
Operating Systems

Operating systems design. Processes, threads, concurrent programming, and scheduling. Memory, file, and I/O management. Security issues.



CSCI 466
Networks

Network communication of computer systems. Emphasis on the OSI model, network organization, and different protocols

CSCI 476
Computer Security

Introduction to computer security. Covers security issues in software design and development from technical, social and legal viewpoints. Topics include cryptography, security models, software security, authentication, authorization, and system security.

ESOF 422
Advanced Software Engineering

Course focuses on the early and late phases of the software lifecycle, extending the knowledge around UML specifications to formulate precise requirements and develop an understanding of the theoretical foundations of the most common forms of software testing

Research

I am not advising any graduate students at this time. If you are a prospective graduate student, please see the other computer science faculty here.


My research background is in Malware Analysis and Detection, but my interests span the realm of cybersecurity as a whole. Below is a list of some of my research work:

I try to support the Software Engineering and Cybersecurity Lab and the Harnessing Automation in Cybersecurity Reasoning Lab in whatever ways I can. I am generally interested in cybersecurity as a whole, but my more specific interests are:

  1. Malware Analysis and Detection
  2. Network Security
  3. Cybercrime
  4. Computer Science Education

malware-cluster

Malware Detection and Malware Analysis

My research involves detecting and categorizing malware before a system is compromised. My thesis, An Evaluation of Graph Representation of Programs for Malware Detection and Categorization using Graph-Based Machine Learning Methods, uses graph-based machine learning to distinguish between benign and malicious programs. Converting a binary to a graph representation, such as a control flow graph, can capture the structure and features of malware, and can then be used to train a machine learning model to detect malicious programs.

I am also interested in categorization of different malware types. It can be valuable to know the type of malware (ie, a virus, ransomware, keylogger, etc) to effectively respond and deal with a potentially compromised system.




Network Security

I am interested in all things related to network security. This includes firewalls, intrusion detection systems, secure protocols and transmission, and network forensics.

firewall



cybercrime

Cybercrime

I am interested in learning about the evolution of cybercrime and current trends in the cybercrime field. I am also interested in policy and cyber law in response to the increases in cybercrime.




Computer Science Education

"Not everyone can become a great computer scientist, but a great computer scientist can come from anywhere" is a saying I frequently tell my students. I firmly believe that anyone, both STEM and non-STEM students, have to ability to succeed in computer science. I strive to make lessons and topics understandable and meaningful to a wide diversity of students. I am in interested in learning ways of making complex topics such as programming, OOP, and cybersecurity more understandable for students.

leaning

Contact

The best way to contact me is through email.
reese.pearsall@montana.edu

Office: Barnard Hall 361