AEGIS partner Rebecca Wright was a keynote speaker at the Hasso Plattner Institute´s Cybersecurity Symposium, “Big Data and Artificial Intelligence: Driving the Future of Cybersecurity,” which took place on Sept. 25 – 26 in New York City. The symposium explored areas such as protecting digital identities, the promise and challenges of Blockchain technologies and the use of Big Data to enhance cybersecurity.
Wright, a computer science professor at Rutgers University and director of DIMACS, the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science, focused on the challenges of protecting digital identities in her keynote address. The Hasso Plattner Institute conducts research and teaching in areas related to IT systems, engineering and design thinking and promotes the implementation of innovative solutions to key social challenges.
Wright noted that there are steps people may take to protect their own digital identities, but that overall it is difficult for individuals to fully protect this information.
Instead of asking users to protect their own data, Wright said that services and infrastructure should provide protection to users. In this context, Wright presented her research on differentially private anomaly detection and on the Jana project, which is focuses on developing a private data-as-a-service platform. The project merges secure multiparty computation and differential privacy to allow flexible, secure and private sharing of personal data.
Regarding policy, Wright said it was important for technology sector to work with policy makers to work together to incentivize an appropriate data ecosystem that both protects individuals and enables innovation. This includes the need for international cooperation in the research and innovation communities in cybersecurity and privacy, she added, which is directly related to AEGIS project goals.
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