18th Central Area Networking and Security Workshop

Key Dates

• Workshop date: October 25, 2025

• Poster / Oral abstract submission deadline: October 18, 2025

  • Notification of acceptance: October 21, 2025

• Student travel award application deadline: October 15, 2025

  • Student travel award notification: October 17, 2025

• Registration deadline: October 22, 2025

• Cutoff date for reduced rates at the Hilton Kansas City Country Club Plaza: October 18, 2025

Workshop Venue: Miller Nichols Library and Learning Center (MNLC).  The closest parking lot is #4 on the MAP.

Parking Information: Parking on the UMKC campus is not free, even on weekends. If you need a parking permit, please email Tanya Henderson <hendersontg@umkc.edu> before 5pm on October 24th. 

Agenda: MNLC 352 (Technical Sessions) and MNLC lobby (Registration, Lunch & Posters)

• 8:30 – 9:00 AM | Registration/checkin, networking, and light breakfast (MNLC lobby)

• 9:00 – 9:15 AM | Welcome and Opening Remarks (MNLC 352)

• 9:15 – 10:15 AM | Keynote: Dr. Guofei Gu, Towards AI-powered Proactive Cyber Defense

• 10:15 - 10:20 AM | Break

• 10:20 – 11:20 AM | New Faculty Lightning Talks 

• 11:20 - 11:30 AM | Break

• 11:30 – 12:30 PM | Session 1 – Privacy, Security, and Trust in Intelligent Systems

• 12:30 – 1:45 PM | Lunch and Poster Session (MNLC lobby)

• 1:45 – 2:45 PM | Panel Discussion – The Impact of AI on Cybersecurity Education and Research 

• 2:45 - 2:50 PM | Break

• 2:50 – 3:50 PM | Session 2 – Emerging Threats and Secure IoT Systems

• 3:50 - 4:00 PM | Break

• 4:00 – 5:00 PM | Session 3 – AI-Driven Perception, Imaging, and Media Integrity

• 5:00 – 5:05 PM | Closing Remarks 

Keynote 

• Dr. Guofei Gu

Eppright Professor in Engineering

Director, SUCCESS Lab

Department of Computer Science & Engineering

Texas A&M University

Title: Towards AI-powered Proactive Cyber Defense

Abstract: Most current cyber defense solutions remain passive and reactive, primarily designed to detect and respond to known threats after they occur. However, as cyber attacks escalate in both frequency and severity—resulting in increasingly devastating impacts—this traditional approach proves insufficient. The rapidly evolving economic incentives behind profit-driven cybercrime continue to shift the security landscape in attackers’ favor, deepening the fundamental asymmetries between attackers and defenders. Clearly, passive defenses alone cannot effectively counteract these dynamic threats. Instead, proactive strategies that anticipate attacks and disrupt them before damage occurs are urgently needed. This talk emphasizes proactive cyber defense approaches aimed at staying ahead of attackers rather than perpetually following them. We will present case studies of new proactive cybersecurity techniques developed at the SUCCESS Lab and discuss what role of AI can play in advancing proactive cybersecurity.

Short Bio:  Dr. Guofei Gu is a professor and holder of the Eppright Professorship in Engineering in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Texas A&M University (TAMU). Before coming to TAMU, he received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology. His research interests are in network and systems security. Dr. Gu is an IEEE Fellow and an ACM Distinguished Member. He is a recipient of 2010 NSF CAREER Award, 2013 AFOSR Young Investigator Award, and Texas A&M Presidential Impact Fellow, among several others. He has pioneered several new research directions such as botnet detection and software-defined network (SDN) security, and his research has received Best (Student) Paper Awards from IEEE S&P 2010, ICDCS 2015, ASIACCS 2022, and Test of Time Awards from ACSAC 2023 and DSN 2025. He is currently directing the SUCCESS Lab at TAMU.

New Faculty Lightning Talks 

Speakers

Dr. Javaria Ahmad, University of Central Missouri

Dr. Zilong Lin, University of Missouri–Kansas City

Dr. Junjie Xiong, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Dr. Xiaowei Yu, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Dr. Ce Zhou,  Missouri University of Science and Technology

Panel:  The Impact of AI on Cybersecurity Education and Research 

Moderator:  Dr. Bo Luo, University of Kansas

Panelists: 

Dr. Baek-Young Choi, MIssouri University of Science and Technology

Dr. Rui Duan, University of Missouri–Kansas City

Dr. Fengjun Li, University of Kansas

Dr. Eugene Vasserman, Kansas State University

Session 1: Privacy, Security, and Trust in Intelligent Systems

Session Chair: Dr. Rui Duan, University of Missouri–Kansas City

1.1 PrivDNN: A Secure Multi-Party Computation Framework for Deep Learning using Partial DNN Encryption

Liangqin Ren, Zeyan Liu, Fengjun Li, Kaitai Liang, Zhu Li, Bo Luo

University of Kansas; Delft University of Technology; University of Missouri–Kansas City

1.2 Neuro-Symbolic Knowledge-Graph Access Control for Zero-Trust and Multi-Domain Defense Systems

Krishnasai Bharadwaj Atmakuri, Udiptaman Das, Luke Miller, Duy Ho, Yugyung Lee

University of Missouri–Kansas City; California State University, Fullerton

1.3 Malla: Demystifying Real-World Large Language Model Integrated Malicious Services

Zilong Lin, Jian Cui, Xiaojing Liao, XiaoFeng Wang

University of Missouri–Kansas City; UIUC; Indiana University Bloomington

Session 2: Emerging Threats and Secure IoT Systems

Session Chair: Dr. Qiuye He, University of Missouri–Kansas City

2.1 PhantomMotion: Laser-Based Motion Injection Attacks on Wireless Security Surveillance Systems

Yan He, Guanchong Huang, Song Fang

University of Oklahoma

2.2 MotionDecipher: General Video-Assisted Passcode Inference in Virtual Reality

Guanchong Huang, Yan He, Shangqing Zhao, Yi Wu, Song Fang

University of Oklahoma

2.3 InteractionShield: Harnessing Event Relations for Interaction Threat Detection and Resolution in Smart Homes

Zhaohui Wang, Bo Luo, Fengjun Li 

University of Kansas

Session 3: AI-Driven Perception, Imaging, and Media Integrity

Session Chair:  Dr. Fengjun Li, University of Kansas

3.1 Reconstruction-Free Classification for Lensless Imaging Systems

Pramil Paudel, Fengjun Li

University of Kansas

3.2 Rethinking Fake Speech Detection: A Generalized Framework Leveraging Spectrogram Magnitude

Zihao Liu, Aobo Chen, Yan Zhang, Wensheng Zhang, Chenglin Miao

Iowa State University

3.3 Detecting Rust Code Vulnerabilities Through Transfer Learning

Irfan Ali Khan, Yu Luo, Weifeng Xu, Dianxiang Xu

University of Missouri–Kansas City; University of Central Missouri; University of Baltimore

Poster Presentations

1. Understanding, Generating, Detecting, and Benchmarking AI-Generated Art

Yuying Li, Zeyan Liu, Junyi Zhao, Liangqin Ren, Fengjun Li, Jiebo Luo, Bo Luo

University of Kansas; University of Louisville; University of Rochester

2. Security of LLM Agents: A Case Study Approach

Diyana Tial, Casey Fan, Vladislav Dubrovenski, Mengtao Zhang, Yugyung Lee, Dianxiang Xu

University of Missouri–Kansas City; Rice University

3. Trust-Aware Task Allocation with Quantum Optimization in Adversarial Multi-Agent Systems

Giselle Roman, Duy Ho, Luke Miller, Ahmed Alanazi, Yugyung Lee

California State University, Fullerton; University of Missouri–Kansas City

4. Robustness of Invisible Watermarks Against Adversarial Attacks

Cat Lewin, Rui Duan, Yugyung Lee

University of Missouri–Kansas City

5. Secure and Resilient Multi-Agent Coordination for Cyber-Physical Systems via Trust-Aware Quantum-Inspired Optimization

Ahmed Alanazi, Joseph Ko, Jaydine Stiles, Luke Miller, Duy Ho, Yugyung Lee

University of Missouri–Kansas City; California State University, Fullerton; Bowdoin College

6. Reproducing Wi-Fi via Autoregressive RF Video Diffusion

Batman Whiteside, Cheng Han, Yugyung Lee, Dianxiang Xu

UNC Charlotte; University of Missouri–Kansas City

7. Towards Real-Time Defense Against Object-Based LiDAR Attacks in Autonomous Driving

Yan Zhang, Zihao Liu, Yi Zhu, Chenglin Miao

Iowa State University

8. Aim5B: AI-Integrated Semantic Framework for 5G and Beyond Network Management

Thanveer Sulthana, Baek-Young Choi, Sejun Song

University of Missouri–Kansas City; Missouri University of Science and Technology

9. Instance-Aware Deep Prompt Tuning: Adding Hidden Representations for Secure Sample-Specific Enhancement

Anna Chen, Cheng Han, Yiyang Liu, Yugyung Lee, Dianxiang Xu

University of California, Irvine; University of Missouri–Kansas City

10. Revisiting Vital Signs Inference Across Subjects with COTS mmWave Radar

Authors: Areesh Sobhani, Qiuye He, Yugyung Lee

Purdue University; University of Missouri–Kansas City

11. Enhancing Cybersecurity with Quantum-Inspired Neural Networks

Tom Steinman, Selam Mitike, Yugyung Lee

University of Missouri–Kansas City, University of California, Santa Cruz

Call for Participation

We seek submissions presenting original research and education activities on all practical and theoretical aspects of computer and communications security.  Original research contributions that were previously accepted/presented, i.e., work-already-published (WaP) papers, are also acceptable. The participants can deliver an oral presentation or a poster presentation.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Anonymity

• Access control

• AI security

• Cryptography

• Cybersecurity experimentation

• Database security

• Information assurance education

• Intrusion detection and prevention

• Legal and policy aspects of cybersecurity

• Network security

• Privacy

• Resilience and survivability

• Risk management

• Software security

• Security for cyber-physical systems and Internet of Things

• Edge/Cloud security

• Security for mobile computing platforms

• Security metrics

• Systems security

• Usable security

• Web security

• Wireless security

Abstract Submission: Click here to submit

CANSec'25 requires a short abstract (no more than 250 words) for both oral and poster presentations. 

Recommended poster size: 36” × 48” in landscape format (36 inches tall × 48 inches wide). 

CANSec'25 Registration: Click here to register

To facilitate room and food planning, advance registration is strongly encouraged. The registration fee is $40 if completed on or before October 22, and $60 thereafter. Payment will be accepted by credit card only. Students should submit a travel grant application to have their registration fee covered and the payment waived.

Student Travel Grant: Click here to apply

Thanks to the generous sponsorship of the UMKC School of Science and Engineering, CANSec’25 is pleased to encourage student participation through travel grants to help offset costs. These awards, pending budget approval, will be provided on a reimbursement basis. Eligible expenses include workshop registration, hotel accommodations (students are encouraged to share rooms), and transportation (students are encouraged to share rides). Preference in the selection process will be given to presenters of accepted abstracts and participants in the CTF competition. Please email Daphne Hunter <hunterd@umkc.edu> if you have any questions about the reimbursement. 

Capture-The-Flag (CTF) Competition: Click here to register 

4PM (Central Time), October 24 , 2025 - 4PM (Central Time), October 25 , 2025

In-person teams should meet in Miller Nichols Library and Learning Center ( MNLC) 451 or 452 (MAP). Parking on the UMKC campus is not free, even on weekends. If you need a parking permit, please email Tanya Henderson <hendersontg@umkc.edu>.

Hotel Reservation for Reduced Rates: Click here to reserve 

You may find other hotel options.

About the CANSec Workshop

The Central Area Networking and Security Workshop (CANSec), which was formerly known as the Greater Kansas Area Security Workshop (KanSec), aims to bring together researchers and practitioners in networking and security-related fields in the central area of the US.

Since spring of 2012, the workshop has attracted attendees from Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, etc. We have also invited speakers from Texas, Indiana, Colorado, South Carolina, Virginia, etc. The goal of the CANSec workshop is to provide a forum to present research in all areas related to computer networking and security, as well as to promote interactions and collaborations between academia and industry. The workshop was originally organized semi-annually in 2012-2016. Since 2016, the CANSec community decides to change it to an annual event to encourage high-quality work to be presented and demonstrated in the workshop.

Starting from 2014, the CANSec workshop added a Cyber-Defense Competition component to its Fall events. The goal of the competition is to provide students with a platform to apply theoretical knowledge into practice, and to obtain hands-on cyber security experiences. It is a one-day competition, in which student teams will be asked to oversee a small corporate network, to manage all critical services, and to defend against external attacks. Scoring will be primarily based on the availability of the services, and how the attacks and injects are handled.