Two Computer Science Students to Participate in Security Scholar Program

Two computer science students from the University of Maryland were selected to participate in the Security Scholar Program at the RSA Conference (RSAC) 2022: Junior Amy Hein and master’s student George Klees (B.S. ’21, computer science).

Now entering its sixth year, the RSAC Security Scholar Program nurtures the professional growth of 50 select undergraduate, master's and Ph.D. students by providing them with the opportunity to share their academic work with attendees; network with industry thought leaders; and gain insights on global trends, groundbreaking solutions and next-era strategies.

Hein has substantial experience in full-stack development and currently works on a research project studying software for group decision and negotiation. In her most recent internship at Verisign, she worked on single sign-on functionality for company tools using new authentication protocols. 

Klees has conducted cybersecurity research in academia and industry. As a software engineering intern for YugaByte, he helped the company develop its PostgreSQL-compatible distributed database software. As an undergraduate, he received a citation from the Honors College’s Advanced Cybersecurity Experience for Students program and was recognized by the National Security Agency as a leading researcher on the winning paper in the 7th Annual Best Scientific Cybersecurity Paper Competition. Klees worked with Computer Science Professor Michael Hicks and colleagues on the paper, which investigated the evaluation process of fuzz testing tools. “Fuzzing” is an automated process for finding vulnerabilities in computer programs by investigating how software code holds up while reading large amounts of random data.