SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA – The National Science Foundation recently awarded the University of California, Santa Barbara a $20 million grant for research in artificial intelligence-powered cybersecurity.
Giovanni Vigna, professor of computer science at UCSB, joined the executive committee along with his colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Chris Krugel, Joao Hespagna and Amji Singh, to lead the newly formed agent-based He will lead the Cyber Threat Intelligence and Operations (ACTION) Institute.
“The ACTION Institute will better assess the opportunities and risks of rapidly evolving AI technologies and their impact on DHS missions,” said Dimitri Kusnesov, Undersecretary for Science and Technology, Department of Homeland Security, in a university press release. It will help,” he said.
Vigna explains that AI could potentially help cybersecurity systems in government agencies and hospitals from cyberattacks.
“The problem is that the attack was so advanced and so fast that we can’t really deal with it at the scale and speed that we need right now,” Vigna said. “So we need artificial intelligence to protect this at the speed and scale we need.”
Bigna likens the current approach to cybersecurity to the defense of football. The goalie must oversee the opposing team’s strategy and tactics and decide where to focus. Vigna says AI-powered tools will be like having multiple goalkeepers.
“Imagine having these kinds of robots, but they are programmed to crawl networks, gather information, talk to each other, talk to humans, and keep an eye on every angle of the network. It’s not a robot because it’s been programmed to.” Needs protection. ”
Justin Cure, director of information technology for the City of Santa Barbara, said it’s hard to say where AI is at this point.
“There are currently no ethical or legal constraints in the AI industry,” Cure said. “We trust and value the human intelligence, partners and technology solutions in our city that provide cybersecurity protection.”
Cure added that the city is constantly looking at new technological solutions to strengthen its cybersecurity posture.
Artificial intelligence security is routinely used in firewalls and intrusion systems, Vigna said, and the institute’s research on these autonomous agents could soon be useful.
“We will have these autonomous components, gathering information, communicating with each other. prize.”
Vigna said he understands that some people have concerns about AI and the amount of information it can process.
“AI is a program. We know how it works, what it does, and we use it as a tool to help us in our daily work.”
Composed of 11 academic institutions nationwide, the ACTION Institute is dedicated to working with various cybersecurity industry partners such as Google and Intel to deploy AI-powered cybersecurity solutions in real-world environments. We plan to gain insight into the challenges we face. .
In addition to developing next-generation cybersecurity, the ACTION Institute conducts programs for K-12 students, undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs.
Vigna hopes the lab’s research will develop ways for humans to interact with these autonomous agents, much like humans interact with other humans.
“We can give them direction on what we want to achieve in a more natural, more effective way.”
Research at the University of California, Santa Barbara for the ACTION Institute will begin on June 1st.
