News

May 18

CMU Student Discovers Website Leaking Locations of Cell Phone Customers

Some cybersleuthing by Robert Xiao, a Ph.D. student in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, uncovered a security vulnerability on the website of LocationSmart, a Carlsbad, Calif., company that provides a service for identifying the real-time location of mobile phones in the United States and Canada.

May 01

What happens when you deploy 2-factor authentication at a university?

“It’s not actually that horrible,” one survey respondent said about using a security feature called 2-factor authentication (2FA) to access their Carnegie Mellon account.

Apr 30

Is there privacy in a world of self-driving cars?

The general population welcomes AVs, but not how they treat data privacy. Cara Bloom discusses policy options.

More news from CyLab

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.