About the INSR

The Institute for Networking and Security Research (INSR) was founded in 2003 as the Networking and Security Research Center. Because the use of the Internet, online applications and computation has become ingrained in almost every aspect of our lives, the issues of cybersecurity and networking are fundamental issues facing researchers today. The INSR is the focal point of security and networking research at Penn State. The Institute has world renowned leaders in cybersecurity and networking, leading the nation’s highest priority research efforts in security and network science. The Institute provides a research and education community for professors, students, and collaborators from the industry. The INSR provides a unique avenue for interaction with the industry; the members of the INSR actively consult with industry experts and participate as partners on funded projects. Member companies enjoy benefits for sponsoring research and having access to the latest results and technical reports from the INSR.

Hosted in the College of Engineering at Penn State, the INSR is comprised of faculty in Computer Science and Engineering, from Electrical Engineering, the College of Information Sciences and Technology, and the Penn State Applied Research Lab. The expertise of the members includes Internet security, policy, secure operating systems, secure programming languages, access controls, mobile networking, protocol design, performance analysis and simulation, wireless communication, networked applications, and large networking software systems. The INSR is leading many large research projects, including a DARPA project on the security of mixed-reality systems. In the past, the INSR led the flagship research program of the Army Research Lab and CERDEC on the science of cybersecurity, and the flagship program of the same two organizations on network science as applied to communications networks.