Blog Posts

In collaboration with the excellent pwn.college  team at Arizona State University (particular shout-outs to Yan, Connor, and Adam), we are excited to release the RII Dojo . For those unfamiliar with pwn.college , their cybersecurity education program is modeled after the martial arts progression, allowing learners to progress from a “‘white belt’ in cybersecurity through the journey to becoming a ‘blue belt’, able to approach (simple) cybersecurity competitions (CTFs) and war

It is again that time of year—Pi Day—in honor of the mathematical constant pi (π), and, indirectly, our blood sugar levels. At RII, we enjoyed the natural tension between new Raspberry Pi-tech shinies and the ever-present tasty pastry. The Raspberry Pi  is the "Swiss Army knife" of the engineering world. It’s a versatile, credit-card-sized computer that has revolutionized DIY tech and rapid prototyping. Whether it's powering a simple sensor or acting as the brain of a complex

RII was thrilled to sponsor the inaugural RE//verse Conference —a premier reverse engineering, vulnerability research, and malware analysis event. As part of this sponsorship, we had a large table in the vendor room to showcase RII and engage with attendees. Our engineers have been to many great conferences over the years and have preferred when sponsors host engaging activities or challenges—instead of just tables lined with swag. In that vein, we designed a customizable LED

Get to know Michael Frankl, a Principal Visual Content Designer and Editor with over 35 years of experience in and around technology.

How would you describe your role at RII? Challenging, but do not let that become a negative word in your mind. I live for challenges and love to meet or beat the challenges presented to the Production Operations (ProdOps) team. In a day, I can touch many RII products, some deployed in the United States and others international. The ProdOps team itself is staffed with some of the best and the most talented people I have ever had the pleasure of working with. We work together t

I’m Tim Nosco, a cyber security researcher here at RII. I’m also a husband, a father, and a U.S. Army veteran. I’ve always enjoyed the intersection of computer science and mathematics, specifically topics like satisfiability solving, symbolic execution, and cryptography. My team recently ran into an interesting exploitation scenario. The device we were testing had a read-out-of-bounds flaw , allowing a routine to access uninitialized memory outside of its own stack frame. It

How would you describe your role at RII? I am currently the Information, Analytics, Command and Control (IAC2) Global Integration Lead, supporting and managing our geographically dispersed integration staff across multiple defense organizations to ensure they have the knowledge, tools, and processes in place to effectively execute their respective missions. Prior to this role, I was the U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) integration lead, which entailed spearheading the integrat

Mike Frankl is a Principal Visual Content Designer and Editor with over 35 years of experience in and around technology. He blends creativity with technical content to produce infographics, proposals, white papers, and program documents. Mike has spent the last 12 years in the Cyber domain, creating visual and written content in support of programs enabling solutions for national security. When Mike isn’t creating content, he hangs out with his amazing wife Linda, takes order

It's National Intern Day! Meet our RIIdiculously Awesome 2023 interns. We love summertime at RII because that means we get to welcome RIIdiculously Awesome interns to our team! Our internship program offers current college students the opportunity to learn professional skills and contribute to meaningful, real-world projects while working in a supportive team environment. Meet our 2023 interns and read what they have to say about their expeRIIences so far: If you’re intereste

How would you describe your role at RII? I’m a software engineer. In 2017, I started on an Android development team within RII and then transitioned to a large scale mission critical system project where I worked with an external customer and a team of other RII developers. As a member of the development team, I write and debug software on a daily basis. You have a degree in history. How did you become interested in software engineering? Can you tell us about your career j

Intuition plays a prominent role in security research. It guides a researcher’s thought process to determine how to prioritize system components for analysis. What is the source of intuition? Can its source be defined and systematized so new researchers can learn how to develop their intuition, and experienced researchers can further refine their own? Applying the Scientific Method to security research can do just that. Security Research vs. Traditional Software Development O

How would you describe your role at RII? I am a computer network operations (CNO) software developer working on a team that has been tasked with delivering tools to fulfill a very unique set of requirements. Can you tell us about your career journey? How did you become a security researcher? I graduated from UF (Go Gators!) with a BA in anthropology, intending to go back to school for a master’s degree in public health. During my senior year, I interned at a non-profit, assis

If you’re not familiar with CTFs (Capture the Flags), visit CTF 101 for more information. The US Cyber Games recently completed the first event of Season II—the US Cyber Open CTF. A few weeks ago, RII was invited by Head Coach O'Connor to provide a challenge for the "Champion Round," a second group of harder challenges released halfway through the event to truly separate top performers. At the end of the CTF, our challenge was the second-least solved pwnable with 10 solves.

How would you describe your role at RII? I am the Product Owner for our IMPACT product and a Subject Matter Expert (SME) on Army Command and Control. My job is to make sure we develop software that meets the needs of our users; and to ensure that our RII engineers and developers understand those needs and the challenges of the people who use our software. Lastly, I lead a team that helps those same users get the most of the software we deliver. What did you do before joining

RII's Senior Technical Recruiter, Maria Cooper, shares her tips on how to prepare for an interview at RII. If you’re reading this blog, you’re most likely pRIIparing for an interview at RII or thinking about applying. Kudos to you for taking the time to visit our website and clicking around enough to find this post! As a recruiter at RII, I work with multiple candidates each week and I appreciate when someone has put in the effort to prepare for their interview; it really doe

With a name like Research Innovations, it seems obvious that doing innovative research and development is part of RII’s DNA.

There are dozens of us - dozens - who don onesies every year.

If you haven't already seen them, RII has some pretty cool core values . As we continue our rapid growth, we've recognized the need to help new hires of all skill levels hit the ground running technically and identify personally with these values and our mission of "creating RIIdiculously Awesome solutions that make the world safer." While RII has fostered formal MentoRIIng classes since 2017, our Cyber Solutions line of business is excited to launch a new mentoring program

On 21 May 2020, Check Point Research published a write up about the integration of the Safe Linking mitigation into glibc 2.32, scheduled fo