Concerns have been circulating around the recent cyber attack that took place at the Royal Military College in July. Students’ academic and financial information has been leaked and threats to pay a ransom may be looming on the horizon. David Skillicorn comments on the possibility of this happening and how seriously such threats should be taken.

Full story here:

https://globalnews.ca/news/7283754/student-financial-rmc-data-leak-cyber-attack/

With social media platforms being widely used, security and privacy becomes something of the past. Among all popular platforms, TikTok poses the greatest amount of concerns and risks to one’s security. Professor David Skillicorn speaks with Global News and shares his further details on why this is the case.

Full video: https://globalnews.ca/video/7239368/expert-urges-canadians-to-be-wary-of-tiktok-app

It is with great joy that we announce Selim Akl as one of the recipients of the Distinguished Service Award. His 42 years of service and dedication to the School of Computing as well as his outstanding and sustained contributions to the field of computer science has been recognized by Queen’s University through a process of nomination.

When commenting on what it means to receive this award, Selim says:

“I am truly grateful for the Distinguished Service Award and the recognition it represents. To have been given the opportunity to serve my colleagues and our students is a true honour. The Queen’s School of Computing is a wonderful place; over the years, the satisfaction of witnessing its many achievements has been a reward in itself.”

Congratulations Selim! We are so proud and honoured to work with you as our trusted colleague and friend!

Read the official announcement here: https://www.queensu.ca/secretariat/university-council/distinguished-service-awards

The IEEE Computer Society Technical Council on Software Engineering (TCSE) has awarded the 2020 TCSE New Directions Award to Dr. Ahmed Hassan of the School of Computing and Dr. Thomas Zimmermann of Microsoft Research.

Drs. Hassan and Zimmermann received recognition for their individual and combined contributions to establish the field of mining software repositories (MSR).  The field emerged from the recognition of the role that software repositories have in better understanding software engineering processes.  New and  innovative solutions for mining data were developed to improve developer productivity and software quality.  Over the past 10 years, the MSR community grew and became well-established in the field of software engineering among researchers worldwide.

Dr. Hassan comments on what this award means to him. He says: “many people helped along the way to create this very vibrant and impactful community! This is the inaugural award so they had lots of candidates and research areas, so it means a lot for the
MSR community to be recognized. I ran a large event 8 years ago on campus called MSR
Vision 2020 where we had over 120 attendees from all over the world to
discuss  the future of MSR. I never imagined we would be this large in 2020,
let alone in the middle of a global pandemic. We just ran the edition of MSR 2020 all online with some sessions having over 1000 viewers! ”

Congratulations Ahmed!

In response to the recent unknown data breach that took place at the Royal Military College,  all staff have been advised not to use any of the computers on site until further notice. Professor David Skillicorn shares his thoughts on this major cybersecurity attack.

Source on the Globe and Mail: Royal Military College weights damage after cybersecurity attack 

As COVID-19 restrictions continue to ease, the uncertainty of contracting the virus still remains. In an effort to bridge this gap, the Trudeau government will launch a smartphone app which will alert Canadians when they’ve been in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. Professor David Skillicorn has provided his thoughts on such apps.

Full story:

https://www.queensu.ca/gazette/mc_administrator/media/available-expert-canada-unveil-covid-19-contact-tracing-app-despite-questions-about-technology