Can we predict the types of attacks that a terror group might carry out? Or if a drone flight over Chicago is threatening or not? Can we assign a score that measures the risk of Boko Haram targeting a school in Nigeria? What might the script used by a scammer look like in coming years and how can we provide an early warning to potential victims? Can we automatically generate new forms of malware and proactively protect against them? How will nation state adversaries run covert social influence operations in coming years and can this knowledge help proactively mitigate this threat? And what about deepfakes – can we identify them successfully or not, especially as they evolve? Understanding threats – before they occur – is key to effective defense. In this talk, I will discuss how the Northwestern Security & AI Lab has addressed the questions listed above in order to dramatically reshape the global threat landscape, both in terms of cybersecurity and in terms of physical security.
About the Speaker
V.S. Subrahmanian is the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Computer Science at the McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University and Buffett Faculty Fellow at the Northwestern Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs. He is also the head of the Northwestern Security and AI Laboratory (NSAIL). Prior to this, Subrahmanian was The Dartmouth College Distinguished Professor in Cybersecurity, Technology, and Society at Dartmouth College with tenure in the Computer Science Department and Director of the Institute for Security, Technology and Society (ISTS). Prior to joining Dartmouth, he was a tenured Professor in the University of Maryland’s Computer Science Department. He served a 6.5 year stint as Director of the University of Maryland’s Institute for Advanced Computer Studies where he co-founded the Lab for Computational Cultural Dynamics and founded the Center for Digital International Government. His work stands squarely at the intersection of data-driven AI for increased security, policy, and business needs. Prof. Subrahmanian has been an invited speaker at the United Nations, Capitol Hill, the Mumbai Stock Exchange, and numerous other prestigious forums.
