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Faculty Interview Presentation Tips

Post author:Mireya Jurado
Post published:March 14, 2019
Post category:academia computer science

After listening to *many* of these particular talks, I have some faculty interview presentation tips for you (and maybe some general presentation tips too). Take what you need. Some background My computer science department, like so many others right now, is undergoing a rapid expansion to meet the growing demand for AI and cybersecurity researchers. For the interviewee, this process involves a full day of talking with faculty, touring the facilities, and giving a presentation…

Monty Hall’s Deal or No Deal

Post author:Mireya Jurado
Post published:December 28, 2018
Post category:probability and statistics

I jumped in the middle of a "Deal or No Deal" episode at my family's house during the holidays. The contestant had 3 remaining briefcases in addition to the one she had chosen. Howie Mandel said, "You have a 1/4 chance." .... That doesn't sound right. According to the famous Monty Hall problem, it isn't. Let's apply the logic of the Monty Hall problem to the game show "Deal or No Deal" to determine the…

US Capital Building

CYBERWARCON Recap

Post author:Mireya Jurado
Post published:December 13, 2018
Post category:computer security cybersecurity international relations

CYBERWARCON was a one-day conference held in Arlington, VA on November 28. Talks were about threat analysis, covering advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks and information operations (IO). For me, the conference demonstrated its value by supplanting sensationalism with concrete operational insights. Here's some of my takeaways from the talks. Please forgive my fuzzy pictures! Thomas Reid The wider socio-political context may be necessary to understand forensics.Exposing part of an IO can sustain it. Camille Francois…

Takeaways from Why Cryptosystems Fail

Post author:Mireya Jurado
Post published:December 1, 2018
Post category:academia

Ross Anderson presents a survey of ATM failures in Why Cryptosystems Fail (1993). Here are some major takeaways: If the deployment environment changes, your assumptions may stop holding. Revisit the goals of your system after deployment. Build with your adversary's real abilities in mind. Do a postmortem study to determine why the cryptosystem failed. (Aside: share the results.) Having good cryptographic building blocks does not mean that what you build with them will be secure.…

New Priorities, Old Denial

Post author:Mireya Jurado
Post published:November 14, 2018
Post category:international relations policy

Recently, I attended an event featuring Ambassador Liliana Ayalde, the Civilian Deputy to the Commander and Foreign Policy Advisor to the United States Southern Command. The event was moderated by Ambassador Paul Trivelli, who was also once the Civilian Deputy to Southern Command. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) is one of the ten unified combatant commands "responsible for providing contingency planning, operations, and security cooperation in its assigned Area of Responsibility which includes: Central America South America…