Our History
The UMBC Cyber Defense Lab (CDL) is a research lab that was created within the UMBC Center for Information Security and Assurance (CISA). CISA grew out of Dr. Sherman’s earlier research group known as the UMBC Security Technology Research Group (STRG), which operated from 1995 to 2000. CISA was formally established in fall 2001 within the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering as the university-wide focal point for research, education, and best practices in information assurance at UMBC. As a result of CISA, UMBC was first designated as a CAE/IAE in 2001 and as a CAE-R in 2008, and has maintained the continuous designations. In fall 2020, CISA merged with the UMBC Center for Cybersecurity, which was created in fall 2010, duplicating much of the mission of CISA, in anticipation of the creation of the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (CCOE).
