Digital Defense: Strengthening Global Health & Security in a Connected World

As cyber threats grow, innovations in cybersecurity, semiconductors, national security, and IoT are critical to protecting infrastructure, data, and public safety. 

UF cybersecurity professor Kevin Butler, Ph.D., developed the framework that helps countries prevent fraud and abuse on mobile cash apps. Cash apps are the prominent form of banking in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia, and it can leave people vulnerable to losing their life savings.   

As mobile-money services were growing at a rapid clip in the developing world 10 years ago, UF computer scientists and cybersecurity experts Butler and Patrick Traynor, Ph.D., were early sentinels, raising concerns about the lack of security that could lead to real problems for the user.  

In a 2014 study, the two CISE professors uncovered security vulnerabilities of mobile cash apps, especially in the Global South, where such technologies were becoming essential in the absence of robust banking systems.  

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