Upcoming Events: Classes of defense for computer systems (4/21); Intellectual Privacy (4/28)

Classes of defense for computer systems

Tuesday, April 21, 12:00pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor. This event will be webcast live.

There is no silver bullet for defending computer systems. Strengthening security means negotiating a balance among a variety of defenses that fall into several different categories and rely on the cooperation and support of many different actors, including technologists, managers, and policy-makers. Therefore, one crucial element of security involves understanding the multiplicity of defenses and the ways they can be combined and recombined to protect systems. Yet, there is no clear model of how different classes of computer system defense relate to classes of attack, or what defensive functions are best suited to technical, policy, or managerial interventions. Drawing on case studies of actual security incidents, as well as the past decade of security incident data at MIT, this talk will analyze security roles and defense design patterns for application designers, administrators, and policy-makers. It will also discuss the interplay between defenses designed to limit access to computer systems and those oriented towards limiting and mitigating the resulting damage.

Josephine Wolff is a PhD candidate in the Engineering Systems Division at MIT studying cybersecurity and Internet policy. Her dissertation research focuses on understanding combinations of different types of defenses for computer systems, including the interactions among technical, social, and policy mechanisms. She has interned with Microsoft's Technology Policy Group, the Center for Democracy & Technology, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Department of Defense. She has also written on computer security topics for Slate, Scientific American, and Newsweek. She holds an AB in mathematics from Princeton University, and an SM in Technology & Policy from MIT. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

Intellectual Privacy

Tuesday, April 28, 12:00pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor. This event will be webcast live.

Why is it bad when the government or companies monitor our reading or web-surfing? We have intuitions that this kind of surveillance is bad, but have failed to explain why digital monitoring in an age of terror and innovation is really a problem. In Intellectual Privacy, Neil Richards offers a new way of thinking about monitoring of our thinking, reading, and communications, one that ensures that our ideas and values keep pace with our technologies. Although we often think of privacy and free speech as being in conflict, Richards shows how privacy and free speech are often essential to each other. He explains the importance of 'intellectual privacy,' protection from surveillance or interference when we are engaged in the processes of generating ideas - thinking, reading, and speaking with confidantes before our ideas are ready for public consumption. In our digital age, in which we increasingly communicate, read, and think with the help of technologies that track us, increased protection for intellectual privacy has become an imperative. A timely and provocative book on a subject that affects us all, Intellectual Privacy will radically reshape the debate about privacy and free speech in our digital age.

Neil Richards is an internationally-recognized expert in privacy law, information law, and freedom of expression. He is a professor of law at Washington University School of Law, an affiliate scholar with the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, a member of the Advisory Board of the Future of Privacy Forum, and a consultant and expert in privacy cases. He graduated in 1997 with degrees in law and history from the University of Virginia, and served as a law clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. RSVP Required. more information on our website>

Love the Processor, Hate the Process: The Temptations of Clever Algorithms and When to Resist Them

On the occasion of his appointment as the George Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School, Jonathan Zittrain delivered a lecture entitled, “Love the Processor, Hate the Process: The Temptations of Clever Algorithms and When to Resist Them.” video/audio on our website>