Ernesto Rafin · Cybersecurity & Human-Centered Security

About

Security is a human problem before it is a technical one.

Research interests

I am a cybersecurity researcher and practitioner with a B.S. in Information Technology Management and a minor in Cybersecurity & Information Assurance from the University of Minnesota Crookston. I care about the gap between how security systems are designed and how real people actually use them.

Working the IT front line, I helped more than a thousand users, including older adults and people with every level of technical comfort, and saw firsthand where security controls confuse people or fail them. That experience shapes my research: I co-authored an IEEE paper on explainable, evidence-grounded misinformation detection with LLMs, and I currently work with the CARE Lab at UMBC on how vulnerable patients make sense of privacy and security risks in digital health tools.

I bring both sides to the table: the methods of a researcher (qualitative coding, literature synthesis, study design) and the instincts of an engineer who has built SIEM pipelines, ML detectors, and access control systems.

Human factors in cybersecurity Usable privacy & security Digital health privacy Misinformation & trust in AI Cybersecurity education Qualitative & mixed methods

Highlights

Recent news

Selected milestones

Oct 2026Co-authoring a manuscript on patient perspectives of digital health security with the CARE Lab at UMBC, targeting ACM Health.
May 2026Graduated with a B.S. in Information Technology Management from the University of Minnesota Crookston in under three years.
2026Joined the CARE Lab at UMBC to research privacy, security, and usability risks in digital health.
2026Minnesota State DECA Finalist for the third consecutive year (2024, 2025, 2026).
Nov 2025Earned the CompTIA Security+ certification.
2025Presented our peer-reviewed IEEE paper on GPT-4 + RAG fake news detection at the Cyber Awareness and Research Symposium (CARS) in Grand Forks, ND.
Mar 2025Featured on North Dakota Today TV for leading the UMN Crookston International Dinner representing Bangladesh.

Research

Research experience

Labs & advisors

CARE Lab, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

2026 – Present

With Dr. Tera Reynolds and Dr. Deborah Kariuki

Contribute to a qualitative interview study of how patients with complex health needs and other vulnerable populations experience and make sense of privacy, security, and usability risks in digital health tools.
Code interview data in NVivo as part of the team's qualitative analysis.
Writing the related work on privacy and cybersecurity in consumer digital health, reviewing research on mHealth and mental health apps, wearables, patient portals, AI, and connected medical devices.
Co-authoring a manuscript for submission to ACM Health in October 2026.

Qualitative researchNVivoDigital healthUsable privacy

AI Research Assistant, University of Minnesota Crookston

Jun 2025 – Jan 2026

Large language models, misinformation, and sociotechnical risk

Co-authored and presented a peer-reviewed IEEE paper on a Bangla fake news detection system that pairs GPT-4 with Retrieval-Augmented Generation, grounding every verdict in a curated knowledge base of 85,000+ verified news articles.
Reached 97.8% accuracy on the BanFakeNews-2.0 test set, outperforming zero-shot GPT-4 (81.5%) and fine-tuned BanglaBERT (92.1%), while producing step-by-step, evidence-cited explanations people can verify.
Studied LLMs with a focus on data reliability, model performance, and sociotechnical risk.

GPT-4RAGLLMsExplainable AILow-resource NLP

Publications

Peer-reviewed work

Selected works

IEEEPeer-reviewed2025

Fake News Detection in Bangladesh Using GPT-4 with Retrieval-Augmented Generation

Ernesto Rafin, J. Alghazo, W. U. Hasan

2025 Cyber Awareness and Research Symposium (CARS), Grand Forks, ND. IEEE.

Misinformation spreads fast in low-resource languages, where few verification tools exist. We built a fact-checking system for Bangla news that retrieves evidence from a curated knowledge base of more than 85,000 verified articles and asks GPT-4 to reason over it.

Every verdict comes with a step-by-step, evidence-cited explanation, so readers can check the reasoning rather than simply trust the model.

Accuracy · BanFakeNews-2.0 test set

GPT-4 + RAG (ours)97.8%

Fine-tuned BanglaBERT92.1%

Zero-shot GPT-481.5%

Paper (DOI) Scholar profile

@inproceedings{rafin2025fakenews,
  author    = {Rafin, Ernesto and Alghazo, J. and Hasan, W. U.},
  title     = {Fake News Detection in Bangladesh Using GPT-4
               with Retrieval-Augmented Generation},
  booktitle = {2025 Cyber Awareness and Research Symposium (CARS)},
  address   = {Grand Forks, ND, USA},
  publisher = {IEEE},
  year      = {2025},
  doi       = {10.1109/CARS67163.2025.11337261}
}

In preparation

Patient perspectives on digital health security. Manuscript with Dr. Tera Reynolds and Dr. Deborah Kariuki (CARE Lab, UMBC), targeting ACM Health.

Projects

Things I have built

Security engineering & software

FeaturedOpen source

AI-Enhanced SOC Detection System

View on GitHub ↗

An end-to-end Security Operations Center pipeline that applies machine learning to real Windows Event Logs and Sysmon process data. It catches unusual patterns that static rules miss, classifies each threat by severity, writes a plain-language explanation for the analyst, and forwards alerts into Splunk Enterprise. In testing it flagged a HIGH-severity brute force attack (five consecutive failed logins from one source) without a single hand-written rule.

PythonScikit-learnIsolation ForestPandasSplunk HECSysmonStreamlit

01CollectWindows Event Logs + Sysmon

02PreprocessMerge into one dataset

03DetectIsolation Forest anomalies

04ClassifySeverity + explanation

05AlertSplunk via HEC + dashboard

NeonNet Desktop Social Network

Grade: A

Senior project with a team of four. A desktop social platform with accounts, direct messaging, notifications, topic-based posts, and comments. I built the authentication and access control layer and the database layer, plus a ranking algorithm (follows, interactions, topic preferences, recency) and an automated content moderation service.

C#Windows FormsSQLiteAccess control

View on GitHub ↗

Secure File Transfer System

An AES-128 encrypted client-server file transfer application, designed around a usability question: how easy can secure key exchange and login be for everyday users without weakening the protection underneath?

AES-128Client-serverUsable security

View on GitHub ↗

Experience

Professional experience

Industry & operations

IT Support Analyst

Nov 2024 – May 2026

University of Minnesota Crookston, Information Technology Division

Provided first- and second-level support to 1,000+ students, faculty, and staff, resolving hardware, software, authentication, and network security issues on Windows and macOS in person, by phone and email, and through remote tools.
Provisioned desktops, laptops, peripherals, and user accounts with correct access levels in Active Directory and Microsoft 365; installed and tested software, repaired hardware, and applied patches.
Documented every fix for the team's knowledge base and escalated critical issues to senior IT staff.
Tested VR hardware and simulations (Unreal Engine 5, Meta Quest) with internal developers and partner universities.

AI Research Assistant

Jun 2025 – Jan 2026

University of Minnesota Crookston

LLM-based misinformation detection research resulting in a peer-reviewed IEEE publication (see Publications).

Web Development Analyst

Oct 2023 – Dec 2023

University of Minnesota Crookston, in partnership with UMN Twin Cities

Worked with a cross-functional team on a website redesign; ran stage testing and reported usability and bug findings to the development team.

Education

Degree

B.S. in Information Technology Management

University of Minnesota Crookston · Graduated May 2026

Minor: Cybersecurity & Information AssuranceDean's List120 credits in 3 yearsInternational Half Tuition Waiver

3.64GPA / 4.00

Relevant coursework: Essentials of Cybersecurity · Information Assurance and Cybersecurity · Cybercrime and Digital Forensics · Networking Standards and Protocols · Secure Data Collection and Retrieval · Database Management Systems · Analysis and Design of Information Systems · Microcomputer Operating Systems · Culture and Technology · General Psychology · Introduction to Statistics

Credentials

Certifications & skills

Verified credentials

CompTIA Security+CompTIA · Nov 2025

Microsoft Cybersecurity AnalystMicrosoft · Oct 2025

SOC Level 1TryHackMe

AWS Cloud Technical EssentialsAmazon Web Services

Google Project ManagementGoogle

Security & operations

Splunk / SIEMActive DirectoryMicrosoft 365Endpoint securityPatchingTCP/IP · DNS · DHCPVPNWindows · macOS

AI & data

PythonScikit-learnPandasSQLGPT-4 / LLMsRAGStreamlit

Research methods

Qualitative coding (NVivo)Literature reviewResearch designSociotechnical risk analysisTechnical writing

Software & spoken languages

C#SQLiteHTMLEnglishBanglaHindiUrdu

Beyond the work

Leadership, service & honors

Community

Leadership & service

Founder & First President, UMN Crookston IT ClubBuilt the club from the ground up and coordinated member projects, including a smart home automation system with IoT sensors and voice control.Mar 2024 – May 2025
Community Advisor, Residential LifeResponded to after-hours emergencies, mediated conflicts, and tutored residents in business and ITM coursework.Aug 2025 – May 2026
Internal Engagement, Veterans Coaching ProjectManaged profiles and engagement workflows for retired U.S. Armed Forces members.Sep 2025 – May 2026
Secretary, Multicultural International ClubOrganized cultural events promoting inclusion on campus and in the community.Aug 2024 – Aug 2025
Co-lead Fundraiser, Regal's RunSecured $5,000+ in sponsorships for a charity 5K supporting a memorial scholarship.2025

Honors & recognition

Peer-reviewed IEEE publicationCyber Awareness and Research Symposium (CARS) 2025.2025
Minnesota State DECA FinalistThree consecutive years.2024 · 2025 · 2026
Featured on North Dakota Today TVFor leading the UMN Crookston International Dinner representing Bangladesh.Mar 2025
Recognized by the Mahnomen PioneerFor leading a cultural service initiative at a local homeless shelter.Nov 2024
Dean's ListUniversity of Minnesota Crookston.
International Half Tuition WaiverUniversity of Minnesota Crookston.2025 – 2026