CyLab Security & Privacy Institute

News

Mar 14

CMU partners with leading payments company Ripple to accelerate innovation in blockchain & cryptocurrency

Carnegie Mellon University has announced a partnership with Ripple's University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) to support academic research, technical development and innovation in blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital payments.

Mar 11

Blockchain Course Challenges Students To Create Apps for the Launch of CMU Cryptocurrency

Carnegie Mellon University researchers are tapping into many disparate applications of blockchain and cryptography to advance economic and business functions of this new technology.

Mar 08

Eight Carnegie Mellon faculty and staff spoke at this week's RSA Conference

Carnegie Mellon had a big showing at this week's RSA Conference in San Francisco with eight faculty and staff members from across the university spoke about topics ranging from security and human behavior to the security of robot-produced code.

More news from CyLab Security and Privacy Institute

Research areas

Biometrics: Biometrics—characteristics about a person unique to them and no one else, such as their fingerprint, their iris, or features in their face—are becoming an increasingly popular method of authenticating a person’s identity.

Cryptography: At the heart of cryptography is creating trust. Strong, robust cryptography allows us to shop online, manage personal finances, and communicate with one another without worrying about criminals stealing our information.

Formal methods: Software today comes with few, if any, security guarantees. Traditionally, software vendors become aware of vulnerabilities after an attack occurs and then issue a patch that fixes that particular attack. Formal methods may be the key to guaranteeing security from the start.

Hardware security: Just as software can have exploitable flaws and vulnerabilities, hardware carries similar risks, but with one major setback: while software can be can be patched for millions of users with a click of a button, fixing hardware vulnerabilities requires manual labor and time.

Machine learning & AI: As the world of “big data” gradually becomes a world of “bigger data,” CyLab researchers are focused on advancing research in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), in which computers can “learn” trends from massive collections of data.

Network security: As the number of connected devices continues to grow, the security of the networks that connect them all becomes even more important. In many cases, adversaries are able to gain access to any number of devices through an unsecured network.

Privacy: As a growing number of connected devices are introduced to the world with a goal of improving our quality of life, they also pose a risk of collecting sensitive information about ourselves and invading our privacy.

Software security: At the heart of countless cyberattacks is a single flaw in the code making up a piece of software. CyLab researchers are advancing the methods in which software bugs are found and fixed in a variety of ways.

Usability: In order for security and privacy tools to work, they must be easily and intuitively usable—by everyone. CyLab researchers are focusing on ways to make security and privacy not feel like a hard task for users, but an easy, enjoyable experience.