2024 News

2024

2023 2025

Dec 17

New part-time master’s program meets growing demand for privacy technology expertise

To meet the needs of busy professionals eager to deepen their expertise without leaving their full-time jobs, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software and Societal Systems Department has launched a new part-time master’s degree program: the MS in Privacy Technology and Policy.

Dec 05

Innovative CMU Secure Blockchain Initiative research, in collaboration with Anaxi Labs, focuses on improving the efficiency of cryptographic proof systems

A team of Carnegie Mellon researchers present an approach to cryptographic proof systems that involves compiling high-level software directly to a low-level representation without hand-written protocols and constraints.

Nov 20

CMU-Africa expands digital public infrastructure initiative Opens in new window

The Upanzi Network will fund research projects in Morocco, Botswana, and South Africa, with plans for additional partnerships.

Nov 19

Enabling developers to write provably correct software

A cross-disciplinary team of Carnegie Mellon University researchers featuring CyLab faculty members Bryan Parno and Ruben Martins has made it possible for non-experts to formally prove that their code is correct, reliable, and secure.

Nov 15

Research team featuring CMU faculty, students wins SOSP 2024 Distinguished Artifact Award

A team of researchers featuring Carnegie Mellon University faculty, students, and alumni has received the 30th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP) Distinguished Artifact Award for the paper "Verus: A Practical Foundation for Systems Verification."

Nov 13

Applications open for CMU Ph.D. programs in cybersecurity and privacy

Carnegie Mellon University offers several Ph.D. programs that attract students interested in pursuing research careers in security and privacy.

Oct 29

Third round of Future Enterprise Security Initiative funded projects announced

CyLab’s Future Enterprise Security Initiative has announced its third round of funded proposals.

Oct 25

Skarlatos receives Intel’s 2024 Rising Star Faculty Award

Dimitrios Skarlatos, assistant professor in Carnegie Mellon University’s Computer Science Department, has received Intel's 2024 Rising Star Faculty Award for his work that bridges hardware and operating systems and delves into the core challenges of datacenter computing, addressing fundamental questions about scalability limitations, security vulnerabilities, and energy efficiency.

Oct 22

Faculty members win DOE Early Career Program Awards

Two Carnegie Mellon faculty members, Carlee Joe-Wong and Thomas O’Connor, have both received the Early Career Program Award from the Department of Energy (DoE) Office of Science for their independent projects.

Oct 16

CyLab hosts industry leaders at the 2024 Partners Conference

CyLab's focus on institutional and corporate collaboration was on full display at its annual Partners Conference, which highlighted the latest research in security and privacy with an interactive forum between faculty, students, industry, and government.

Oct 11

Bryan Parno honored with the IEEE Cybersecurity Award for Practice

Bryan Parno, Kavčić-Moura Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor of Computer Science, has received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Cybersecurity Award for Practice for his contributions to the theory and practice of end-to-end secure systems.

Oct 10

A honeynet infrastructure to battle SMS scammers Opens in new window

Bernard Odartei Lamptey from CMU-Africa's Upanzi Network hopes to combat mobile money scam transactions by collecting more data about smishing in order to develop ways that users can protect themselves.

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Sep 30

NIST awards $6M to Carnegie Mellon University to establish AI Cooperative Research Center

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced Sept. 24 that the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded $6 million to Carnegie Mellon University to establish a joint center to support cooperative research and experimentation for the test and evaluation of modern AI capabilities and tools.

Sep 26

CyLab names 2024 Presidential Fellows

Each year, CyLab recognizes high-achieving Ph.D. students pursuing security and/or privacy-related research, with a CyLab Presidential Fellowship, covering an entire year of tuition.

Sep 20

CyLab leading tenure-track faculty hiring search

The CyLab Security and Privacy Institute at Carnegie Mellon University is leading a university-wide priority hiring search for tenure-track faculty who focus on security or privacy.

Sep 18

CyLab hosts top cybersecurity researchers for the 2024 NSF SaTC PI Meeting

On Sept. 4-5, more than 500 of the world’s leading cyber-systems researchers convened in Pittsburgh for the 2024 National Science Foundation Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace Principal Investigators’ Meeting (NSF SaTC PI), hosted by Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab Security and Privacy Institute.

Sep 12

Distinguishing real sounds from deepfakes

Laurie Heller, Carnegie Mellon University professor of psychology, and a team of researchers have developed a deep neural network detector to automatically classify environmental sounds as either real or AI-generated.

Sep 04

Alina Oprea receives 2024 CyLab Distinguished Alumni Award

Alina Oprea, professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University, has been named CyLab's 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient.

Aug 20

CyLab researchers win two “Test of Time” awards at USENIX 2024

CyLab researchers Matt Fredrikson, associate professor in the Software and Societal Systems Department (S3D), and Bryan Parno, Kavčić-Moura professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science, were honored with prestigious “Test of Time” awards during the 33rd USENIX Security Symposium.

Aug 12

Carnegie Mellon’s hacking team wins third straight, record eighth overall DEF CON Capture-the-Flag title

The winningest team in DEF CON’s Capture-the-Flag (CTF) competition history, Carnegie Mellon University’s Plaid Parliament of Pwning (PPP), won its third consecutive title, earning its eighth victory in the past 12 years.

Aug 09

Prudentia project explores how Internet applications perform when sharing the same connection

The Prudentia project, a new study from researchers inn CyLab and Carnegie Mellon University’s Computer Science Department, explores how popular Internet services – from Netflix to Google Drive – perform when sharing the same Internet connection.

Aug 07

CyLab faculty, students present research at the 33rd USENIX Security Symposium

Carnegie Mellon faculty and students presented on a wide range of topics at the 33rd USENIX Security Symposium. Held in Philadelphia on August 14-16, the event brought together experts from around the world, who highlighted the latest advances in the security and privacy of computer systems and networks.

Jul 31

CyLab undergrads take the lead on groundbreaking research

This summer, two CyLab papers that featured undergrads as lead writers were accepted and presented at major international conferences.

Jul 25

CMU research team wins CAV 2024 Distinguished Paper Award

A team of Carnegie Mellon University researchers has received the 36th International Conference on Computer Aided Verification (CAV) Distinguished Paper Award for the tool paper "A Framework for Debugging Automated Program Verification Proofs via Proof Actions."

Jul 22

CyLab researchers present their work at 2024 SOUPS

Carnegie Mellon faculty and students shared their research at the 2024 Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS), which took place August 11-13 in Philadelphia.

Jul 19

CMU hosts researchers and industry experts for the Second Annual Secure Blockchain Summit

To address research and industry challenges around distributed ledger technologies, Carnegie Mellon University’s Secure Blockchain Initiative (SBI) brought together the foremost blockchain researchers and industry experts for the Second Annual Secure Blockchain Summit.

Jul 17

Anaxi Labs becomes strategic partner with Carnegie Mellon University for Secure Blockchain Initiative

Anaxi Labs, a scientific organization dedicated to researching and developing cryptographic technology, has partnered with Carnegie Mellon University to support technology creation through the Secure Blockchain Initiative (SBI).

Jul 10

Navigating digital financial inclusion in Africa

As the presence of mobile phones becomes increasingly widespread in Africa, digital services have allowed for more financial inclusion among low- and middle-income countries within the continent. A group of Carnegie Mellon University researchers led by Karen Sowon, a postdoctoral researcher at CMU’s CyLab Security and Privacy Institute, investigated these issues and recently published a paper on "The Role of User-Agent Interactions on Mobile Money Practices in Kenya and Tanzania."

Jul 09

Christin named head of Software and Societal Systems Department

Nicolas Christin, CyLab faculty member and co-director of Carnegie Mellon University's Secure Blockchain Initiative, has been named the new department head of CMU's Software and Societal Systems Department (S3D).

Jul 05

CyLab researchers set to present their work at PETS 2024

Carnegie Mellon University faculty members and students shared their research at the 2024 Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS). Held annually, the 24th PETS was be a hybrid event taking place July 15-20, with a physical gathering held in Bristol, UK and a concurrent virtual event.

Jul 03

Fanti named Angel Jordan Associate Professor

With the approval of Provost James H. Garrett, CyLab core faculty member Giulia Fanti has been named the new Angel Jordan Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, effective July 1, 2024.

Jun 26

CyLab Venture Network connects researchers, domain experts to support cybersecurity startups

CMU is launching the CyLab Venture Network to provide a substantive program for startups looking to disrupt the security and privacy industry by connecting founders with venture investors, corporate partners, academics, and government officials.

Jun 05

picoCTF-Africa inspires participants to learn cybersecurity Opens in new window

picoCTF-Africa, now in its third year, helps participants improve their skills in vital cybersecurity disciplines.

Jun 03

Three-peat for CMU hacking team at MITRE cybersecurity tournament

The winning streak continues for Carnegie Mellon’s competitive hacking team, Plaid Parliament of Pwning (PPP), who claimed first prize at the MITRE Embedded Capture the Flag (eCTF) competition for the third consecutive year.

May 30

picoCTF hacking competition returns for its 11th year

From March 12–26, thousands of participants competed in the picoCTF competition hosted by Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab Security and Privacy Institute. The more than 18,000 participants ranged from middle schoolers and their teachers to undergraduate university students.

May 22

CyLab announces second round of Secure Blockchain Initiative funded projects

Carnegie Mellon University's Secure Blockchain Initiative (SBI) has announced its second round of funded proposals, providing $90K to three groundbreaking research projects that are exploring the security and privacy of distributed ledger technology.

May 15

CyLab researchers present research at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy

CyLab faculty members and students presented their research on topics ranging from mobile money practices in Africa to uncovering and identifying side-channel and evasion attacks at the 45th Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Symposium on Security and Privacy.

Apr 25

Carnegie Mellon celebrates CMU-Africa Week 2024 Opens in new window

In its second year running, CMU-Africa Week welcomed students from the land of a thousand hills to the city of bridges.

Apr 24

Sood named Schmidt Science Fellow

Mansi Sood, a final-year, CyLab-affiliated Ph.D. student in electrical and computer engineering, is among the 32 early-career researchers who were named members of the 2024 cohort of Schmidt Science Fellows, joining a community of scientists and supporters who seek to drive sector-wide change by pursuing interdisciplinary research.

Apr 23

CyLab awards 2024 seed funding

This year, CyLab has awarded $400K in seed funding to 17 CMU students, faculty, and staff members representing five departments at the university.

Apr 15

Releasing private population analytics: How should we do it? Opens in new window

Population analytics is a concept that has important downstream applications, like determining funding allocations, but these analytics can leak sensitive data about individuals.

Apr 10

CyLab researchers present at ACM CHI 2024

CyLab Security and Privacy Institute researchers presented 10 papers and participated in one special interest group at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2024).

Mar 21

CyLab researchers develop a taxonomy for AI privacy risks

A team of Carnegie Mellon University researchers constructed a taxonomy of AI privacy risks by analyzing 321 documented AI privacy incidents. The team’s goal was to codify how the unique capabilities and requirements of AI technologies described in those incidents generated new privacy risks, exacerbated known ones, or otherwise did not meaningfully alter known risks.

Mar 11

CMU faculty selected for UN-led working group on DPI safeguards Opens in new window

Assane Gueye and Giulia Fanti have been selected by the United Nations Office of the Secretary-General Envoy on Technology to be part of a working group for the DPI Safeguards initiative.

Feb 22

Students from across the globe are gearing up for the 11th annual picoCTF capture-the-flag competition

picoCTF’s 11th annual capture-the-flag hacking competition for middle school, high school, and college students will take place from March 12 through March 26. Students interested in participating can register now by signing up for a free account at picoctf.org.

Feb 14

CyLab faculty, students to present at NDSS Symposium 2024

Carnegie Mellon faculty and students will present on a wide range of topics at the 31st Annual Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS) Symposium. Held at the Catamaran Resort Hotel & Spa in San Diego from February 26 through March 1, the event fosters information exchange among researchers and practitioners of network and distributed system security.

Feb 07

2024 NSF CAREER Awards

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded CyLab faculty members and Electrical and Computer Engineering Assistant Professors Giulia Fanti, Guannan Qu, and Akshitha Sriraman the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, a prestigious five-year grant given to junior faculty for research and education.

Jan 30

Corina Pasareanu and Elaine Shi named 2023 ACM Fellows

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, has recognized CyLab faculty members Corina Pasareanu and Elaine Shi as 2023 ACM Fellows for their transformative contributions to computing science and technology.

Jan 18

CMU and CLP celebrate International Data Privacy Day on January 28

In celebration of International Privacy Day, Carnegie Mellon University is teaming up with Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP) to host Data Privacy Day 2024. The event will take place on Sunday, January 28 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at CLP-Main (Oakland) in the South Wing Reading Room on the 2nd floor. Data Privacy Day is open to the public, and no registration is required. Lunch will be provided.

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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