CERIAS Weekly Security Seminar - Purdue University

AI is enabling developers and non-developers (product managers, solutions engineers) to write more lines of code than even before. Businesses are under pressure to ship these AI built products to stay competitive while still meeting regulatory requirements. Can AI solve this problem? In this talk, we will explore the opportunities and pitfalls to use AI agents for DevSecOps. About the speaker: Sanket Naik is the founder and CEO at Palosade, building a purpose-built AI platform enabling enterprises to automate their security program and unleash their business potential. He enjoys giving back to startups through investing and advisory roles. Before Palosade, he was the SVP of engineering for Coupa. In this role, he built the cloud and cybersecurity organization, over 12 years, from the ground up through an initial public offering followed by significant global growth. He has also held engineering roles at HP and Qualys.Sanket holds a BS in electronics engineering from the University of Mumbai and an MS in CS from Purdue University with research at the multi-disciplinary CERIAS cybersecurity center.

We need to understand AI, what's here and what's coming, at a deep and ever-deepening level. This is a genuine inflection point for our society. It's like the internet squared except the rate of adoption is much higher. We don't have decades to figure this out. ... This is not a technical talk. The focus is on the approaches we need to adopt to work in tandem with AIs. It's about thinking differently. It's about thinking like hackers. About the speaker: Richard Thieme is an author and speaker who addresses the challenges posed by new technologies. He has published numerous articles, thirteen books, and delivered hundreds of speeches. His Mobius Trilogy illuminates the realities of intelligence work and was lauded by a CIA veteran as one of the best works of serious spy fiction ever. He spoke at Def Con this year for the 27th time and was named the first "uber contributor" of the conference. He has keynoted security conferences in 15 countries. Clients range from GE, Microsoft, Medtronic, and Bank of America, to NSA, FBI, Dept of the Treasury. Los Alamos, Pentagon Security Forum, and the Secret Service.

End-to-end encrypted (E2EE) messaging on the Internet allows encrypted messages to be sent from one sender to one or multiple recipients in a way that cannot be decrypted by anybody else - arguably not even the messaging service provider itself. The protocol of choice is Signal that invokes and puts in place several cryptographic primitives in new and ingenious ways. Besides the messenger of the same name, the Signal protocol is also used by WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Wire, and many more. As such, it marks the gold standard and state of the art when it comes to E2EE messaging on the Internet.To make it scalable and useful for large groups, the IETF has also standardized a complementary protocol named messaging layer security (MLS). In this talk, we outline the history of development and mode of operation of both the Signal and MLS protocols, and we elaborate on the next challenges for the future. About the speaker: Rolf Oppliger studied computer science, mathematics, and economics at the University of Bern, Switzerland, where he received M.Sc. (1991) and Ph.D. (1993) degrees in computer science. In 1994-95, he was a post-doctoral researcher at the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) of UC Berkeley, USA. In 1999, he received the venia legendi for computer science from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, where he was appointed adjunct professor in 2007. The focus of his professional activities is on technical information security and privacy. In these areas, he has published 18 books and many scientific articles and papers, regularly participates at conferences and workshops, served on the editorial boards of some leading magazines and journals, and has been the editor of the Artech House information security and privacy book series since its beginning (in the year 2000). He's the founder and owner of eSECURITY Technologies Rolf Oppliger, works for the Swiss National Cyber Security Centre NCSC, and teaches at the University of Zurich. He was a senior member of the ACM and the IEEE, as well as a member of the IEEE Computer Society and the IACR. He also served as vice-chair of the IFIP TC 11 working group on network security.

Cybersecurity stands at a historic inflection point, where converged forces are reshaping how we think about digital defense. In this discussion, Kyndryl's Global Security & Resiliency Leader Kris Lovejoy will share five key predictions for how AI-driven threats, workforce disruption, geopolitical fragmentation, quantum computing, and infrastructure vulnerabilities will redefine how we secure our digital future. These forces are not just trends, but urgent signals of what's to come. Kris will also provide a strategic framework for navigating this converged threat landscape, with insights into the emerging roles, governance models and resilience strategies that will shape cybersecurity in the years ahead. About the speaker: Kris Lovejoy is an internationally recognized leader in cybersecurity and cyber resilience. As Kyndryl's Global Practice Leader for Security and Resiliency, Kris leads more than 7,500 cyber resilience professionals across more than 60 countries. Before joining Kyndryl, Kris led EY's Global Consulting Cybersecurity practice. She also founded and led BluVector Inc., one of the first AI-powered Advanced Threat Detection products, which Comcast acquired in 2019. Kris was previously general manager of IBM Security Services. Kris serves on the boards of Dominion Energy (NYSE: D) and the International Security Alliance (ISA) and is also a member of the World Economic Forum's Cybersecurity Committee and Cybersecurity Coalition. She holds U.S. and EU patents in risk management and champions inclusion in cybersecurity as executive co-sponsor of Kyndryl's Women's Inclusion Network. Her cybersecurity industry contributions have earned multiple recognitions, including The Cyber Guild's Change-Maker Award (2022), "Top 50 Cybersecurity Leaders" by The Consulting Report (2021), and "Top Woman Technology Leader" by Consulting Magazine (2020).

The U.S. military possesses a deep and extensive body of cyber expertise in uniform in the National Guard and Reserve force in particular. Leveraging this expertise effectively, both in a way that is productive for the military, and that is fulfilling and meaningful for the servicemember — which results in benefits for recruiting, retention, and continued development of this expertise — has been an ongoing challenge. This productive employment is even more challenging while in reserve status, resulting in attrition of this critical force. There is a national imperative, as well as clear statements from military cyber leadership, to effectively utilize all available resources to include the National Guard and Reserve force to meet the nation's cyber challenges. About the speaker: Dave Schroeder works to enable and advance intelligence and security research and partnerships at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is passionate about creating connections and bringing the rich and dynamic expertise at UW–Madison to the most pressing global security challenges. Dave serves as a Cyber Warfare Officer in the Wisconsin Army National Guard, and previously served a Navy Cryptologic Warfare Officer. He is also Research Director of the Wisconsin Security Research Consortium (WSRC), and manages UW-Madison's Cyber Programs and Designations. He holds graduate degrees in Cybersecurity Policy and Information Warfare, and is graduate of the Naval Postgraduate School, Naval War College, and Joint Forces Staff College.

People talk quite a lot about things like 'shift left" that make it sound as if it is a new concept -- sold at your finer consultancies -- to build things properly in the first place. After two decades of incident response, smoke jumping and Tech Debt burndowns, I think it's time to talk about the way teams can build security not just into the product but into the company culture by examining some basic realities of the product development process. This is not just for tech companies; it's for any firm with a process by which they turn ideas into money. Because for all the SDLC tools, all the configuration platforms, the code scanners, and the security and code testing doodads out there, nothing in my experience works as well as starting with the basics: including security and legal experts as well as the people who manage the internal services that will be your upstream and downstream dependencies at the ideation stage. The amount of weapons-grade stupid, the mountain ranges of tech debt, and the broken business promises that this simple plan can avoid make it hard to believe that it's so rare to find these practices in mainstream companies. In this talk, I will describe the most common side effects of failing to do this, how those side effects manifest into cultural roadblocks, silos, and sadness, and most important: how you can break the cycle, slash through the Gordian knot of despair and missed deadlines, and return to cranking out product like a start up. About the speaker: Nick Selby is the founder of EPSD, Inc., and he has more than 20 years of experience advising organizations in highly targeted industries. Previously, he led professional services at Evertas and served as Interim Executive Director of the Cryptoasset Intelligence Sharing and Analysis Center. His executive roles have also included stints at Trail of Bits and Paxos Trust Company. He managed cyber incident response at TRM Partners and N4Struct, and in 2005 founded the information security practice at 451 Research (now S&P Global Intelligence), where he served as Vice President of Research Operations until 2009. As Director of Cyber Intelligence and Investigations at the NYPD (2018-2020), Selby led cybercrime investigations for America's largest police department. Selby serves on the Board of Directors of the non-profit National Child Protection Task Force and the advisory board of Sightline Security. While retired from law enforcement, he continues to serve as a reserve detective for a Dallas-Fort Worth area police agency, where he investigates crimes against children and the cyber aspects of real-world crimes.

The DNS resolution path by which the world's internet content consumers locate the world's internet content producers has been under continuous attack since the earliest days of Internet commercialization and privatization. Much work has recently and is currently being invested to protect this vital source of Personally Identifiable Information -- but by whom, and why, and how? Let's discuss. About the speaker: Paul Vixie serves AWS Security as Deputy CISO, VP & Distinguished Engineer after a 29-year career as the founder and CEO of five startup companies covering the fields of DNS, anti-spam, Internet exchange, Internet carriage and hosting, and Internet security. Vixie earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Keio University in 2011 and was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2014. He has authored or co-authored several Internet RFC documents and open source software projects including Cron and BIND. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Vixie

About the speaker: Recorded: 04/23/2025 CERIAS Security Seminar at Purdue University Using Side-Channels for Critical Infrastructure Protection Tristen Mullins, ORNL Dr. Tristen Mullins is a cybersecurity professional specializing in side-channel analysis, cyber-physical systems security, and supply chain integrity. Currently an R&D Associate and Signal Processing Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), she conducts innovative research at the intersection of hardware security and national security. Dr.Mullins earned her Ph.D. in Computing from the University of South Alabama in2022, where she focused on developing novel defense mechanisms against side-channel attacks and made significant contributions to adaptive security architectures. At ORNL, she leads initiatives in critical infrastructure protection and cyber resilience while actively mentoring students and promoting cybersecurity education. Additionally, Dr. Mullins plays a vital role in the National Security Sciences Academy and has founded the IEEE East Tennessee Section Young Professionals Affiliate Group to support emerging engineers.Honored with multiple awards for her contributions and leadership, she remains dedicated to enhancing the security of next-generation computing systems through collaboration with both federal agencies and industry leaders.

The purpose of Russian hacking and their concept of cyber war is conceptually and practically different from Western strategies.  This talk will focus on understanding why Russia uses cyber tools to further strategic interests, how they do it (by examining the 2016 interference in the U.S. presidential election and the NotPetya cases), and who does it. About the speaker: Dr. Richard Love is currently a professor at NDU's College of Information and Cyberspace and recently served as a professor of strategic studies at U.S. Army War College's (USAWC) School of Strategic Landpower and as assistant director of the Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute from 2016-2021. From 2002 to 2016, Dr. Love served as a professor and senior research fellow at NDU's Institute for National Strategic Studies / WMD Center.  He is an adjunct professor teaching law, international relations, and public policy at Catholic University and has taught law and policy courses at Georgetown, the Army Command and General Staff College, the Marshall Center, and the Naval Academy, among others.  He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations and Security Studies from the University of New South Wales in Australia (2017), an LLM from American University School of Law (2002), and a Juris Doctor in Corporate and Security Law from George Mason University School of Law. His graduate studies in East-West relations were conducted at the Jagellonian University in Krakow, Poland, and the University of Munich, in Germany.  His undergraduate degree is from the University of Virginia.

This talk explores how the principles and practices of the American public health system can inform and enhance modern cybersecurity strategies. Drawing on insights from our recent CRA Quad Paper, we examine the parallels between public health methodologies and the challenges faced in today's digital landscape. By analyzing historical responses to public health crises, we identify strategies for improving situational awareness, inter-organizational collaboration, and adaptive risk management in cybersecurity. The discussion highlights how lessons from public health can bridge the gap between technical cybersecurity teams and policymakers, fostering a more holistic and effective defense against emerging cyber threats. About the speaker: Josiah Dykstra is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Trail of Bits. He previously served for 19 years as a senior technical leader at the National Security Agency (NSA). Dr. Dykstra is an experienced cyber practitioner and researcher whose focus has included the psychology and economics of cybersecurity. He received the CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service (SFS) fellowship and is one of ten people in the SFS Hall of Fame. In 2017, he received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from then President Barack Obama. Dr. Dykstra is a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) and a Distinguished Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). He is the author of numerous research papers, the book Essential Cybersecurity Science (O'Reilly Media, 2016), and co-author of Cybersecurity Myths and Misconceptions (Pearson, 2023). Dr. Dykstra holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.