2019 News

2019

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Dec 03

“Looking at You” illustrates today’s privacy dilemma in the form of an opera

A team of CyLab researchers helped put on an opera called Looking at You, which ran in New York City in September and explored issues of digital privacy in today’s screen-filled world.

Nov 22

Sharing accounts in the workplace is a mess

In a new study, CyLab researchers found that people in the workplace are sharing accounts like Facebook, Google, and company email accounts for a variety of reasons. The way they share these accounts could lead to mishaps.

Nov 15

CyLab researchers propose new rules for Internet fairness

Just weeks after a team of Carnegie Mellon researchers showed that Google’s new congestion control algorithm (CCA) was giving an unfair advantage to its own traffic over services using legacy algorithms, the same team has proposed new guidelines on how future algorithms should be developed.

Nov 13

Project Amelia provides a visit to the not-so-distant future

Project Amelia had its final production earlier this month in Pittsburgh’s South Side, where it had been running since early September. A whole cast of CyLab researchers were involved in the production.

Nov 11

CMU women prominent among Rising Stars 2019

Women from Carnegie Mellon University outnumbered those from every other institution at Rising Stars 2019, an annual workshop for early-career women in computer science and electrical and computer engineering. Two women from CyLab also won two of the four prizes in the workshop’s Research Pitch Competition.

Oct 30

Nearly 40,000 compete in picoCTF

The biggest hacking competition keeps getting bigger. Earlier this month, more than 39,000 people from all 50 US states and 160 different countries participated in picoCTF, a free online hacking competition hosted by CMU.

Oct 28

CyLab releases 2018-2019 Year-In-Review

CyLab has just released its 2018-2019 Year-In-Review. Inside the publication, readers can find highlight CyLab events, select publications CyLab staff, faculty, and students have published and presented at a variety of conferences, and other notable activities and highlights from the past year.

Oct 21

CMU researchers find Google’s new congestion control algorithm does not treat data fairly

New research out of Carnegie Mellon shows that a new congestion control algorithm called BBR, developed by Google, can be unfair competing with other services in overloaded networks. Those findings are being presented this week at the Internet Measurement Conference in Amsterdam.

Oct 21

Six things you should know about AI from experts in the field Opens in new window

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering share what they have learned about artificial intelligence while working in the field.

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Oct 18

New tool gives researchers a better look at online anonymous marketplaces

In a study presented at the Knowledge Discovery and Data (KDD) Mining Conference, Xiao Hui Tai teamed up with two other researchers to develop an algorithm that will help law enforcement agencies crack down on illicit products being sold on online anonymous marketplaces.

Oct 04

This new tool for developers can help preserve app users’ privacy

A team of CyLab researchers created a tool that nudges developers to think a bit harder about user privacy when coding data requests.

Sep 26

The world’s largest hacking competition, hosted by Carnegie Mellon, launches tomorrow

Tomorrow marks the sixth launch of picoCTF, a free, online cybersecurity competition aimed at middle and high school students created by security experts in Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab.

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Sep 26

Protecting 3D printers from attackers Opens in new window

CyLab’s researchers have developed a tool to identify security risks of networked 3D printers.

Sep 10

CyLab’s Corina Pasareanu and colleagues receive $1.2 million grant to develop automated bug-finding techniques

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $1.2 million grant to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, UC-Berkeley, and UC-Santa Barbara to develop automated bug-detection and repair techniques that work at large scales.

Sep 03

CyLab names 2019 Presidential Fellows

Each year, CyLab awards Presidential Fellowships to high-achieving exemplary graduate students researching topics around security and privacy. This year's Fellows have been announced.

Aug 29

CyLab team uses AI to find and disrupt malware distribution networks

According to a new study authored by researchers in CyLab, network analysts have a new ally in detecting malware distribution networks: artificial intelligence.

Aug 23

CyLab researchers create tool to help prevent cyberattacks on vehicles

CyLab's Sekar Kulandaivel and colleagues have developed a network-mapping tool to help keep vehicles protected from cyberattacks. The tool meticulously maps a car's network in under 30 minutes on less than $50 worth of hardware.

Aug 22

When privacy and the arts collide

Sophie Calle is a French artist who often blurs the lines between life and her art. What if Calle knew how to code, and take advantage of our personal data to create an even more personalized, privacy-intrusive form of art? That’s something CyLab’s Maggie Oates has been exploring.

Aug 19

Apps are rife with privacy compliance issues, and here’s some evidence

A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Fordham University recently created the Mobile App Privacy System (MAPS), a tool that uses natural language processing, machine learning, and code analysis to identify potential privacy compliance issues by inspecting apps’ privacy policies and code.

Aug 16

Why people (don’t) use password managers effectively

A recent study by a team of CyLab researchers, including Pearman, provides some insight into how ineffectively people may be using password managers, potentially nullifying the benefits the managers are meant to provide.

Aug 15

Opting out of data use is hard, but it doesn’t have to be

A recent study by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Michigan found that while many websites share users' browsing data with advertisers, it is difficult for users to figure out how to prevent this practice.

Aug 12

CMU crowned hacking champs for fifth time in seven years

Carnegie Mellon University’s competitive hacking team, the Plaid Parliament of Pwning (PPP), just won its fifth hacking world championship in seven years at this year’s DefCon security conference.

Aug 07

CMU’s Plaid Parliament of Pwning prepares for DefCon 27

Five INI students and alums are headed to DefCon 2019 to compete in “World Series of Hacking.”

Jul 29

Security and privacy need to be easy

In 2005, Carnegie Mellon hosted a first-of-its-kind conference that brought together researchers from dozens of universities and companies around the world with one mission: make privacy and security tools easier to use. That conference, the Symposium On Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS), is holding its 15th annual meeting next month. SOUPS, as well as the entire usable privacy and security field, have deep roots at CMU.

Jul 22

$5M Knight Foundation Investment creates center to fight online disinformation

Carnegie Mellon University today announced the creation of a new research center dedicated to the study of online disinformation and its effects on democracy, funded by a $5 million investment from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The new center will bring together researchers from within the institution and across the country.

Jul 18

NSF awards $1.2M to create a digital assistant to answer people’s privacy questions

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $1.2 million grant to a team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, Fordham University, and Penn State University to develop a tool—a “privacy assistant”—that will allow users to simply ask questions about the privacy issues that matter to them.

Jul 11

Social media bots interfere in Asia-Pacific elections, too

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University wondered: are bots also influencing elections in the Asia-Pacific? Of course they are, says a new study being presented this week at the 2019 SBP-BRiMS conference in Washington, D.C.

Jul 10

Malicious social media bots tried, but failed, to diminish NATO during its 2018 exercise

A new study by Carnegie Mellon University researchers illustrates how fake news was spread on Twitter by bots during NATO’s 2018 Trident Juncture Exercise. The study is being presented this week at the 2019 SBP-BRiMS conference in Washington, D.C.

Jul 08

Ads, cookies, and the European privacy regulation

A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Paris-Sud have been pondering how the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation affected the use of cookies, as well as its impact on websites that rely on cookies for revenue-generating ads.

Jun 28

Overcoming the privacy paradox

Why do some people say they value their privacy, but then willingly give up personal information when downloading an app? Understanding this so-called “privacy paradox” would help answer lots of questions about how privacy could be better dealt with.

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Jun 21

How to teach cybersecurity without scaring students away

Last week, the masterminds behind picoCTF shared some lessons learned in a paper at the Colloquium for Information System Security Education conference in Las Vegas.

Jun 18

Securing the energy grid with blockchains Opens in new window

The US Department of Energy has awarded two Carnegie Mellon researchers a $400,000 grant to strengthen grid security using blockchain technology.

May 30

BUYER UNAWARE: Security and privacy rarely considered before buying IoT devices

In a study presented at the ACM CHI conference in Glasgow earlier this month, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab found that security and privacy risks may not be on the list of considerations when consumers purchase new IoT devices.

May 17

Blame the tech, not the users

A recent study led by researchers in Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab found that when a personal device has fallen victim to some sort of cyberattack, users often misdiagnose what exactly is going on–but they’re not the ones to blame.

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May 10

Working with big data just got easier

Daehyeok Kim developed FreeFlow, an open-sourced software-based solution that unites two techniques that minimize disruption of cloud servers' central processing units (CPUs).

May 07

Heinz College students conquer Deloitte Cyber Threat Competition

Four Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy students won top honors at the 2019 Deloitte Cyber Threat Competition by thwarting a simulated cyber attack.

Apr 29

First round of Secure and Private IoT Initiative funded projects announced

CyLab’s Secure and Private IoT Initiative (IoT@CyLab) has broken ground as the first round of funded proposals have been announced. Twelve selected projects will be funded for one year, and results will be presented at the IoT@CyLab annual summit next year.

Apr 26

Virgil Gligor inducted to the Cybersecurity Hall of Fame

CyLab’s Virgil Gligor was formally inducted into the Cybersecurity Hall of Fame this week at the Arundel Preserve Hotel in Hanover, Maryland.

Apr 23

Lorrie Cranor, Brian Kovak named Andrew Carnegie Fellows

Carnegie Mellon University faculty members Lorrie Cranor and Brian K. Kovak have been named to the 2019 Class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a philanthropic foundation that has supported the advancement of education and knowledge for more than a century.

Apr 22

CMU women shine at Women in Cybersecurity Conference

Women make up about one-fifth of the national cybersecurity workforce. That statistic, coupled with Carnegie Mellon's accelerating number of women working in the field, may help explain why the annual Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) conference was hosted by Carnegie Mellon University last month.

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Apr 18

A new era for the Bosch Chair

Lorrie Cranor has received the Bosch Distinguished Professorship in Security and Privacy Technologies, enabling her to lead a new era of security and privacy research at the university.

Apr 04

Achieving provably-secure encryption

Earlier this week, a team consisting of researchers from CyLab released the world's first verifiably secure industrial-strength cryptographic library—a set of code that can be used to protect data and is guaranteed to protect against the most popular classes of cyberattacks.

Mar 26

Celebrating women in cybersecurity Opens in new window

CMU’s Lorrie Cranor and Dena Haritos Tsamitis will speak at this week’s Women in Cybersecurity Conference in Pittsburgh.

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.

Mar 05

CyLab’s Gligor and Woo receive Distinguished Paper Award for breakthrough result on establishing “root of trust”

In a breakthrough study, “Establishing Root of Trust Unconditionally,” CyLab researchers Virgil Gligor and Maverick Woo present a test that can be run on any computing device to show whether the device has been infected with malware or not.

Feb 20

2019 Dean’s Early Career Fellows Opens in new window

Three young faculty members have been granted the 2019 Dean’s Early Career Fellowship to enable their continued contributions to their respective fields.

Feb 19

CyLab study: How the Twitter community stopped fake news about Oscar-nominated "Black Panther"

On February 16, 2018, mere hours after Academy Award-nominated "Black Panther" first released to theaters, fake news trolls and malicious social media bots went to work.

Jan 30

Building a verifiably-secure internet

In security, almost nothing is guaranteed. It's impossible to test the infinite ways a criminal hacker may penetrate a proverbial firewall. But what if, by the laws of mathematics, something could be proven to be secure without running an infinite number of test cases?

Jan 14

Lorrie Faith Cranor named new director of Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab

Lorrie Faith Cranor has been named the next director of CyLab, Carnegie Mellon University's security and privacy institute, effective January 15.

Media Mentions

Associated Press

Carley discusses how misinformation can spread

CyLab’s Kathleen Carley was quoted by the Associated Press about the dangers of misinformation, particularly pertaining to false claims of election fraud and how that may impact overseas voters. “Laying the groundwork for a conspiracy theory means that you need to weave many claims together,” Carley explained.

Time

Brumley discusses social security number breach and cybersecurity

ECE’s David Brumley spoke with Time about the hack in April that resulted in SSN data from the NPD being leaked. “We are not talking about a startup here,” Brumley said. “Looking forward, we have to have higher standards for the custodians of our data.”

Atlantic Council

Fanti and Sowon suggest improving the way governments regulate technology

Giulia Fanti and Karen Sowon were among the co-authors of an article in Atlantic Council suggesting ways in which governments could more effectively regulate new technologies while avoiding setbacks.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Carley discusses new tools designed to curb the spread of disinformation online

CyLab/EPP’s Kathleen Carley spoke with Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the need to improve detection of inaccurate or misleading content online.

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