Understanding the Sony Hack and Information Security

IIT experts in computer security and the law will discuss the recent Sony hack and other corporate security breaches on Tuesday, January 27, 12:45-1:50 p.m., Stuart 104 Auditorium. The event is sponsored by the College of Science. All are welcome. Please RSVP to cronin@iit.edu.

What is publicly known so far? What is suspected? How can such breaches be prevented? How might we identify the hackers?

The speakers will give a timeline of what happened and discuss what is known about the incident – the kinds of destructive malware used in these and other breaches, different kinds of security vulnerabilities, what can and cannot be done to protect against this kind of attack, and how to deal with such a breach after the fact. The discussion will cover a wide range of technical, legal, and policy issues – the speakers will offer thoughts on how technology and legal professionals can join forces to improve data security.

Speakers will include Shlomo Argamon and Kevin Jin of the Department of Computer Science and Richard Warner of IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law:

• Argamon, who was recently quoted about the hack in the New York Times, LA Times, Boston Globe, NPR and other media, is an expert in computational linguistics who specializes in determining authorship based on language style. His research has been funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), and other agencies. He is a professor of computer science, the director of the data science program, and the co-editor of Computational Methods for Counterterrorism (Springer 2009).

• Jin is an assistant professor of computer science who focuses on cyber security, networking, and modeling and simulation of large-scale computing and communication systems and networks. He teaches courses in advanced computer security, information security, and network security. His research has been funded by the U.S. National Security agency (NSA).

• Warner is faculty director of the Center for Law and Computers, a professor and Freehling Scholar. He is the co-author of Unauthorized Access: The Crisis in Online Privacy and Security and a member of the U.S. Secret Service's Electronic and Financial Crimes Taskforce. He has written about earlier corporate data breaches, such as at Target.

To learn more, please contact Argamon at argamon@iit.edu, Jin at dong.jin@iit.edu, or Warner at rwarner@kentlaw.edu.