Security and Privacy in an Everchanging System Landscape

Abstract: From AI and IoT to AR/VR and Web 3.0, computer systems are evolving at an unprecedented rate. While this evolution has given rise to exciting applications and opportunities, it has also brought about novel security and privacy challenges within these systems and across their interactions with existing platforms. In this talk, I will discuss how system security researchers can keep up with this everchanging landscape and showcase some of my lab’s recent work on understanding and detecting malicious web bots. I will explore how we can build and roll out research infrastructure to measure web bot activities and later use our newfound understanding to develop practical solutions to counter them. I will highlight how we can apply similar research principles to areas such as AI and IoT. Finally, I will conclude my talk by previewing some of my ongoing work and outlining my research roadmap toward achieving “security at inception” for emerging systems.

Bio: Amir Rahmati is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Stony Brook University, where he leads the Ethos Security & Privacy lab. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2017. His research focuses on understanding emerging threats in computer systems and building practical solutions that can tackle their security and privacy challenges. His work has resulted in tens of publications and patents, as well as thousands of citations. Rahmati’s research is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Office of Naval Research (ONR), Meta, and IBM. His research has received frequent attention from media outlets, including MIT Technology Review, Washington Post, and Bloomberg. His work on the security of autonomous driving systems is part of the permanent display at the London Science Museum.