Distinguished Lecture Series 2009-2010
Overview:
"Reconceptualizing Security" |
|
"The Challenge of Pervasive
Software to the Conventional Wisdom of Software Engineering" |
|
"Title of Talk TBA" |
September 17th, 2009 at 5:30p.m
W.T.
Young Library Auditorium
[info]
"Reconceptualizing Security"
Bruce Schneier
Chief Security Technology Officer, BT.
Abstract:
Security is both a feeling and a reality. You can feel secure without actually being secure, and you can be secure even though you don't feel secure. We tend to discount the feeling in favor of the reality, but they're both important. The divergence between the two explains why we have so much security theater, and why so many smart security solutions go unimplemented. Several different fields -- behavioral economics, the psychology of decision making, evolutionary biology -- shed light on how we perceive security, risk, and cost. It's only when the feeling and reality of security converge that we have real security.
Biography:
Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist and author. Described by The Economist as a "security guru," he is best known as a refreshingly candid and lucid security critic and commentator. When people want to know how security really works, they turn to Schneier.
His first bestseller, Applied Cryptography, explained how the arcane science of secret codes actually works, and was described by Wired as "the book the National Security Agency wanted never to be published." His book on computer and network security, Secrets and Lies, was called by Fortune "[a] jewel box of little surprises you can actually use." Beyond Fear tackles the problems of security from the small to the large: personal safety, crime, corporate security, national security. His current book, Schneier on Security, offers insight into everything from the risk of identity theft (vastly overrated) to the long-range security threat of unchecked presidential power and the surprisingly simple way to tamper-proof elections.
Regularly quoted in the media, he has testified on security before the United States Congress on several occasions and has written articles and op eds for many major publications, including The New York Times, The Guardian, Forbes, Wired, Nature, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Washington Post.
Schneier also publishes a free monthly newsletter, Crypto-Gram, with over 150,000 readers. In its ten years of regular publication, Crypto-Gram has become one of the most widely read forums for free-wheeling discussions, pointed critiques, and serious debate about security. As head curmudgeon at the table, Schneier explains, debunks, and draws lessons from security stories that make the news.
Host: Professor Andy Klapper
March 24th, 2010 at 5:30p.m
W.T.
Young Library Auditorium [info]
"The Challenge of Pervasive Software to the Conventional Wisdom
of Software Engineering"
Mary Shaw
School of Computer Science
Carnagie Mellon University
Abstract:
The conventional wisdom of software engineering holds that software systems are developed by software professionals, that they have knowable (if evolving) requirements, that project managers control system configurations, that results can be computed directly, and that the systems can, at least in principle, be validated.
In fact, the conventional wisdom fails to account for much of the software that permeates everyday life. For example, the social and economic success of the Internet arises from the proliferation, evolution, and interaction of applications and services that have been independently created by diverse stakeholders.
We will explore the ways in which the conventional wisdom falls short and the corresponding new research opportunities, including architectural approaches to describing the software systems that have become integral to modern life.
Biography:
Mary Shaw received her B.A. from Rice University and her Ph.D. from Carnegie-Mellon University. She has been a member of the faculty at Carnegie Mellon since she completed her Ph.D. degree in 1972. Shaw's main area of research interest is software engineering, including architectural, educational and historical aspects.
Shaw has received numerous awards for her contributions to software engineering, including the Stevens Award and the Warnier Prize. She is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Mary Shaw is the Alan J. Perlis Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie-Mellon University.
Host: Professor Jane Hayes
April 20th, 2010 at
5:30p.m
W.T.Young Library Auditorium
[info]
"Title of talk TBA"
Leslie Lamport
Researcher, Microsoft Corporation
Abstract:
TBA
Biography:
TBA
Host: Professor Ken Calvert