Dr.  Arun Vishwanath, Buffalo, New York, studies the “people problem” of cyber security.

Dr. Arun Vishwanath’s research focuses on improving individual, organizational, and national resilience to cyber attacks by focusing on the weakest links in cyber security—all of us Internet users.

His particular interest is in understanding why organizational insiders willingly exfiltrate sensitive organizational data; why people become unintentional insiders by falling prey to social engineering attacks that come-in through email and social media; and on ways we can harness this understanding to secure cyber space. He also examines how various groups–-criminal syndicates, terrorist networks, hacktivists–-utilize cyber space to commit crime, spread mis-information, recruit operatives, and radicalize others.

Dr. Vishwanath’s research on improving cyber resilience against online social engineering has been funded by the National Science Foundation. He has written and published over two-dozen articles on technology users and cyber security issues and my research has been presented to principals at national security and law enforcement agencies around the world. His research has also been featured on Wired, CNN, USA Today, Bloomberg Business Week, Consumer Reports and hundreds of other national and international news outlets.

Below is a list of some of the influential articles he’s authored:

• on why weaponizing the Internet is a bad idea [Washington Post]
• on why smartphones are more vulnerable to social attacks [Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, DBIR, 2019]
• on why so many people fall for fake social media profiles online [LA Times]
• on why spear phishing has become even more dangerous [CNN]
• on how people can stay safe from ransomware [CNN]
• on what President-elect Trump must do to save the Internet [CNN]
• on how cyber breaches occur [CNN]
• on the people problem of cyber security [The Conversation]
• on the threats to our critical infrastructure from cyber attacks [CNN]
• on the threat from data exfiltration through attacks like the Sony Pictures attack [CNN]
• the problems with encryption in the FBI vs. Apple’s iPhone encryption debate  [CNN]
• the rising tide of ransomware attacks [CNN]
• why cyber attacks keep coming and are likely to do so in the near future [CNN]
• how mobile app designs contribute to such attacks [CNN]
• why we need a virtual wall to protect cyber space and how we can build it [CNN]
• how people’s habits are responsible for many cyber attacks [The Conversation]
• how we must change people’s habits and build better cyber hygiene [World Economic Forum]
• on how we can blunt the phisher’s spear [Blackhat’16]
• on how “Spear-Phishing” Roiled the Presidential Campaign [Scientific American]
• on whether the new iPhone is designed for cyber safety [Newsweek]
• A running list of Dr. Vishwanath’s papers can be found here: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4, Link 5.