Sean Sanders

Website: artbarts.com Email: spsand1@ilstu.edu Address: 3105 Rudder Ln, Apt 105, Bloomington, Illinois, 61701

Employment History

Assistant Cybersecurity Professor Illinois State University, School of Information Technology
- 2024 – Present
Contractor Praxair
- 2013 – 2014
- Programming and application testing on multiple projects.
- Documentation Expert
  - Developed documentation for a point-of-sale trucking application and assisted with programming.
  - Helium Project: Documented the security system for truck tracking in Brazil and the U.S., producing a written guide for system operators.

PhD in Computer Science and Engineering State University of New York at Buffalo (UB)
- Aug. 2017 – May 2022
Masters in Computer Science and Engineering State University of New York at Buffalo (UB)
- Aug. 2022 – May 2024
Masters in Computer Networking and System Administration Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)
- Thesis: Private cloud deployment with docker and kubernetes
- Aug. 2014 – May 2016
Bachelors in Computer Information Systems Buffalo State College
- Aug. 2012 – May 2014
- Graduated Summa Cum Laude.
Associates in Telecommunications Technology Erie Community College (ECC)
- Aug. 2009 – May 2012
- Graduated Summa Cum Laude.

Outstanding Service Award Computer Science Department, University at Buffalo (Fall 2022)
Nominated for InfotechWNY Best Innovator Beta Award Buffalo, NY (2022)
Second Place, CSE Ph.D. Poster Competition University at Buffalo (Fall 2021)
- For the paper: “A comparison and contrast of Apktool and Soot for injecting blockchain calls into Android applications”.
Best Student Paper Award CCSC (2018)
- For the paper: “Anoncing the Performance of Hashing Algorithms”.

Yuhui Zhang, Laura Amo, Charles Border, Diana Cichock, Joana Gaia, David Murray, Sean Sanders, Shambhu Upadhyay, George Sanders, “To Hack or Not To Hack, That is the Question: Ethical Orientation in Hacking” (Under review at Technology in Society).
Sean Sanders, Dr. Lukasz Ziarek, “Mobile Malvertising Detection Using Finite State Machines, Dynamic Analysis, and Static Analysis Techniques” (IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security 2025).
Brandon Szerwo, Sean Sanders, Hafiz Adesina, “Are Discretionary Accruals a Valid Proxy for Discretionary Audit Quality”.
Md Tahmid Rashid, Rudra Prasad Baksi, Sean Sanders, Md Jawad Siddique, “A Survey of Secure Multi-Party Computation for Federated Learning in Resource-Constrained Systems”.

J1: Amo, Laura; Sanders, Sean; Gaia, Joana; Murray, David; Singh, Raghvendra; Sanders, George; Upadhyaya, Shambhu, (2025). “The Role of Economic Incentives and Disincentives in Deterring Insider Hacking Behavior”, Engineering Management Review.
J2: Amo, Laura; Dianna, Cichocki; Gaia, Joana; Murray, David; Sanders, George L; Sanders, Sean; Upadhyaya, Shambhu; Wang, Xunyi, (2025). “Calm, Focused, and Potentially Dangerous: Unpacking the Role of Mindfulness in Cyber Hacking”, Decision Science Institute.
J3: mo, Laura; Gaia, Joana; Murray, David; Sanders, George L; Sanders, Sean; Upadhyaya, Shambhu; Wang, Xunyi, (2023). “Primary and Secondary Control as Antecedents to the Dark Traits in Predicting Attraction to Hacking Behavior”, Journal of Organizational Psychology.
J4: Gaia, J., Sanders, G., Sanders, S., Upadhyaya, S., Wang, X., (2021). “Dark traits and hacking potential”, Journal of Organizational Psychology.
J5: Sanders, S., & Border, C (2018). “Private cloud deployment with docker and kubernetes”, Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges.

C1: Amo, Laura; Gaia, Joana; Murray, David; Sanders, George L; Sanders, Sean; Upadhyaya, Shambhu; Wang, Xunyi, (2024). “Economic Incentives and Perceptions as Critical Factors for Understanding Insider Hacking Behavior”, HICSS.
C4: Sanders, S., & Ziarek, L. (2022). “Developing a Zen Click Fraud Detection Framework Using Smart Contracts”, HICSS.
C5: Wang, Sanders, and Sanders, “Examining the Impact of Yelp’s Elite Squad on Users’ Following Contribution.”, User Behaviors, Engagement, and Consequences, ICIS (2021)
C6 Sanders, S., & Ziarek, L. (2021). “A comparison and contrast of APKTool and Soot for injecting blockchain calls into Android applications”, HICSS.
C7 Joana Gaia, Bina Ramamurthy, G. Lawrence Sanders, Sean Patrick Sanders, Shambhu Upadhyaya, Xunyi Wang, “Psychological Profiling of Hacking Potential”, Proceedings of the 2020 Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, January 2020
C8: Sanders, S. P., & Sanders, G. L. (2021). “The blockchain art simulation (BARTS) and experiential exercises”, ACM ITiCSE.
C9: Sanders, S.P., Sanders G.L “Anoncing the Performance of Hashing Algorithms”, In Proceedings of the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges North Eastern, Marymount University, October 2018, received the Best Student Paper Award.

Sakura Ghimire, “School of Information Technology faculty led only INSuRE Summer Workshop in country in 2025”

IT 359: Penetration Testing (Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025)
- Focus: Ethical hacking, offensive security software, and methodologies.
IT 360: Incident Response/Investigation (Fall 2024, Fall 2025)
- Focus: Detecting, responding to, and investigating information security incidents.

CSE 426/526: Blockchain Application Development
- Topics: Cryptography, consensus mechanisms, and Smart contracts (Solidity/Ethereum).
Graduate Teaching Assistant (TA):
- CSE 191: Discrete Structures
- CSE 250: Data Structures
- CSE 431/531: Algorithms Analysis and Design

UB NSF GenCyber Camp (2016–2023): Taught password security, prompt engineering, and blockchain.

Committees: Assessment committee and Cybersecurity faculty hiring committee at ISU.
Advisory: Advisor for Women in Cybersecurity (WiCYS) (2024–Present).
Diversity: Part of the DEBI Committee (2026).
Memberships:
ACM Member (2021–2024)
IEEE Member (2024–Present)