NITRD Panel: ML/AI and Cybersecurity

Moderator: Tomas Vagoun, PhD, Cybersecurity and Privacy R&D Technical Coordinator, Federal Networking and IT R&D Program (NITRD)

Panelists:
Jeremy Epstein, Deputy Division Director, CISE/CNS, National Science Foundation
Tristan Nguyen, Program Officer, Air Force Office of Scientific Research
Sharothi Pikar, Acting Assistant Director, Cyber, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Research & Engineering)

Abstract: Machine Learning has become an indispensable technology that allows us to extract insights from vast quantities of data in many industries and applications. Advances in areas such as perception, language recognition, medical diagnosis, or self-driving have been spectacular. In security, ML has been instrumental in identifying threats, attacks, and abnormal activities. However, ML algorithms have not been designed to operate in the presence of adversaries. Furthermore, securing and defending ML systems is hard because we lack theoretical tools for developing principled ML defenses. Can ML/AI give defenders the upper hand without exposing systems to new attacks? Panelists will discuss Federal Government's research in ML/AI and cybersecurity and issues to drive further R&D.