The changing ecosystem of AI and cybersecurity: new advances, evolving risks

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BIO:
Owen McNally is a professor, researcher, and technology analyst in Austin, Texas, and a Director of Collaborations and Events at the National CyberWatch Center. An enduring theme in his work is an evaluation of technologies for usability, quality, and ethics based on humanistic principles. He holds an interdisciplinary Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, with a program of work in Medical Cognitive Science. He has taught college-level software design, cognitive studies, psychology, research methods, and statistics for the behavioral sciences. In recent years his work has been in cybersecurity readiness, hospital software, modeling of COVID dynamics in populations, software design and usability, risk analysis, and researching investment opportunities in AI, neurotechnology, logistics and other sectors.

TALK SUMMARY:
In September 2023, the cybersecurity analytics company Splunk, which has never been profitable in its 20 years, was acquired by Cisco Systems for $28 billion. This highlights the gradual merging of two technology ecosystems: information security and data protection with artificial intelligence and machine learning. AI plays an increasingly crucial role benefiting cybersecurity, especially with regards to helping to scale security efforts, threat detection, prediction of advanced persistent threats and ransomware threats, phishing detection, and other domains. However, bad actors, increasingly partnered with nation states, also can access AI and machine learning tools to break defense and wreak havoc. "Jailbreak" versions of Large Language Models or LLM's can be used to rapidly generate code against databases of known vulnerabilities, rendering the possibilities of zero-day exploits more of a threat than ever. Moreover, AI models can generate false positives (such as flagging benign activities as malicious) and false negatives (for instance, missing actual threats). Over-reliance on AI without human oversight can lead to mistakes. It's essential to maintain a balance between automation and human judgment. While AI is a vital tool for modern cybersecurity, providing advanced capabilities and efficiencies, like any tool, it must be analyzed with care, used judiciously and in conjunction with other methods and technologies.

HOW TO ATTEND:
Capital Factory is located at 701 Brazos Street, on the 1st floor of the Omni Hotel. We are in the Captain America meeting room, which is on the 8th floor, which can be reached via the lobby elevators. If you have trouble finding the room, you can go to Capital Factory's main event room off the Omni lobby, Voltron, Suite 150. Once inside, there should be someone at the desk to direct you to our meetup. You may also message us on this event or message us at @EFFaustin on Twitter or @effaustin on Mastodon if you are having trouble finding us. Please note that the room will be locked and EFF-Austin will not have access until 10-15 minutes before 7:00pm CST.

Talk will be livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/user/austintechlive and will later be archived at https://www.youtube.com/user/effaustin. Questions for the speaker from virtual attendees may be submitted via the Youtube livestream chat, our Twitter account, @EFFaustin, or our Mastodon account, @effaustin.

Parking for the Omni Garage can be validated at the Capital Factory front desk inside room Voltron, Suite 150, reducing the cost to $8. If no one is at the desk, check with EFF-Austin meetup organizers, we can provide you with one. Attendees must park after 5pm and leave before 10pm to receive the discount, otherwise they will be charged full price, which is $3.25 for every 30 minutes. Affordable street park is also available nearby. Details: https://capitalfactory.com/parking/

AFTER PARTY:
Join us for the discussion from 7:00PM-9:00PM, followed by drinks and camaraderie from 9:00PM-10:00PM in the Omni Hotel lobby.