Aaron Burstein, Toward a Culture of Cybersecurity Research

Aaron Burstein, Toward a Culture of Cybersecurity Research

Comment by: Aaron Burstein

PLSC 2008

Published version available here:

Workshop draft abstract:

Research being conducted by computer scientists offers great promise in improving cybersecurity threats in the short and long term.  Progress in cybersecurity research, however, is beset by a lack of access to data from communications networks. Legally and informally protected individual privacy interests have contributed to the lack of data, as have the institutional interests of organizations that control these data. A modest research exception to federal communications privacy law would remove many of the legal barriers to sharing data with cybersecurity researchers. This reform would also counter many of the non-legal objections, such as cost and user backlash, that network providers cite as reasons not to share data with researchers.