“secure code is
the first link in
the chain,” says
charlie miller, chief
security researcher
at accuvant Labs.
“People say,
‘We’re human,
we can’t write perfect
software.’ But we’re
at 50% right now.
We’re not even close.”

bile phone companies got a dollar for
every customer whose password they
set? What if we had cybersecurity edu-
cation programs, like we do for fire
safety and AIDS?”
Information sharing is another idea
that is proven easier to suggest than
to implement. Because big breaches
often evolve from smaller attacks, in-
creased transparency about tactics and
vulnerabilities could help contain the
damage. With few exceptions, how-
ever, companies are slow to publicly
acknowledge incidents, and they typi-
cally release little information about
the attacks. Could they learn from aca-
demia, where security officers take a
more collaborative approach?

Further Reading

Cate, F.H., Abrams, M.E., Bruening, P.J., and Swindl, O. Dos and Don’ts of Data Breach and Information Security. The Centre for Information Policy Leadership, Richmond, VA, 2009.

Cate, F.H.

Information Security Breaches: Looking Back & Thinking Ahead. The Centre for Information Policy Leadership, Richmond, VA, 2008.

Cisco Systems

Email Attacks: This Time It’s Personal. Cisco Systems, San Jose, CA, 2011. Center for Strategic and International Studies Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency Securing Cyberspace for the 44th Presidency. Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C., 2008.

DataLossDB

http://datalossdb.org/ Leah hoffmann is a technology writer based in brooklyn, ny.

Milestones

Computer Science Awards The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), IEEE, and the Electronic Design Automation Consortium recently honored a select set of computer scientists.

aaai seNioR memBeRs
AAAi awarded Senior member
status to nine distinguished
AAAi members at the 25th
AAAi Conference on Artificial
intelligence. the new Senior
members are Marie desJardins,
University of maryland
Baltimore County; Hans W.
Guesgen, massey University;
Tad H. Hogg, institute for
molecular manufacturing;
Diane J. Litman, University of
Pittsburgh; João Pavão Martins,
instituto Superior tecnico,
technical University of Lisbon;
Leora Morgenstern, SAiC; Ted
E. Senator, SAiC; Ramasamy
Uthurusamy, General motors;

and Holly Yanco, University of massachusetts Lowell.

B. RamakRishNa Rau a WaRD
Yale N. Patt, an electrical and
computer engineering professor
at the University of texas at
Austin, is the recipient of the
inaugural ieee Computer
Society B. ramakrishna rau
Award, which recognizes
significant achievements in the
field of microarchitecture and
compiler code generation.

PhiL kaufmaN a WaRD C. L. David Liu, the William mong honorary chair professor of computer science and former president of the national tsing hua University, received the Phil Kaufman Award for Distinguished Contributions to electronic Design Automation (eDA) for his fundamental and seminal work in eDA.