IPRI’s cybersecurity work focuses on the intersection of security and policy. We build cyber risk models and metrics to help guide security investment and policymaking, and our team builds the technical platforms to gather and model that data securely and privately.Our multidisciplinary security research covers the encryption debate, accountability, securing core economic and social infrastructure, measuring cyber risk, and cryptography.
Cyber risk models and metrics
IPRI’s cyber risk research builds risk models and security benchmarks for economic sectors using the SCRAM secure computation platform developed at MIT.
MIT/ Federal Reserve Annual Conference
MIT IPRI, The Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond hold an annual conference on efforts to measure and track cyber risk across the financial system.
SCRAM
MIT’s world-leading cryptographers, risk specialists, and cybersecurity experts worked together to build the SCRAM secure computation platform to securely and privately collect security posture and incident data without requiring organizations to disclose their own inputs. working together with industry leaders to securely and privately measure and model cyber risk.
Differential Privacy
What is the right notion of privacy for protecting “small data,” when the number of data points is too small to benefit from typical aggregate computing techniques? IPRI investigates mechanisms for private data releases, in the settings of Differential Privacy, Predicate Singling Out, and other frameworks. We also aim to further our understandings of the tradeoffs between these frameworks as applied to different settings including “small data,” and apply them to our other cybersecurity studies.
IPRI researchers perform technical research on voting technologies to ensure the integrity of these critical systems. Fair elections are the foundation of democracy, and any compromise of the electoral process can undermine the legitimacy of the government and the trust of citizens in the system. Recent IPRI research has focused on mobile voting from Voatz and OmniBallot.
IPRI research in the Advanced Network Architecture Group focuses on Internet routing security best practices and the economics around their adoption. For network operators, security measures can be operationally complex and expensive to implement, provide little competitive advantage, and protect only against origin hijacks, leaving unresolved the more general threat of path hijacks. We study how the industry can make practical, measurable progress against the threat of route hijacks in the short term by leveraging institutionalized cooperation rooted in transparency and accountability.
The digital systems that control critical infrastructure are easily penetrated and architecturally weak, and we have known it for a long time. Infrastructure security has been hesitant and chiefly rhetorical, while system operators have tended to focus on short-term fixes and tactical improvements. IPRI research examine the challenge of securing critical infrastructure and make policy recommendations. The work began in 2016 with a focus on four critical economic sectors, all of which are overwhelmingly or entirely in private hands: electricity, finance, communications, and oil-and-natural-gas (ONG). The critical infrastructure team published its report here.
There are two strategic and longstanding questions about cyber risk that organizations largely have been
On January 17-18, 2024, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the Federal Reserve Bank of
Municipalities are vulnerable to cyberattacks with devastating consequences, but they lack key information to evaluate
Cloud Security Benchmarking Framework – The MIT-IBM CloudSec 16 – Daniel Lewke (2023) This research
Register for the event at: https://www.eventcreate.com/e/mit-federal-reserve-bank-wo
By Rebecca Spiewak. With increasingly sophisticated threat actor tactics, an expansion of internet-connected services and
Written by Sean Atkins1 Since the late 1990s, U.S. policy to secure its critical infrastructure
On March 3, 2021, Daniel Weitzer spoke in an MIT CSAIL talk hosted by Hal
On January 27, 2021, The CSAIL Computing and Society CoR and the MIT Internet Policy
In a recent Time article, Billy Perrigo discussed how Facebook has created an Oversight Board,
January 27th 2021 | 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | Zoom The Internet has transformed
On December 10th, 2020 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Zoom, join us for
Written by Stephanie Nguyen & Ilaria Liccardi Nine months after the COVID-19 outbreak in the
Written by Sunoo Park. Just last month, over 75 prominent security researchers signed a letter
As the 2020 U.S. Presidential election draws near, discussions on voting techniques and platforms are
The virtual ImPACT 2020 Conference aimed to develop an understanding of how automated contact tracing
The 24th Annual BCLT/BTLJ Symposium will be held on February 27th and 28th 2020 at
On Wednesday December 4, 2019, the Harvard University Asia Center and Harvard Project on Europe
Join us on September 25, 2019 at 2:00 p.m. in 32-D463 to hear J. Scott
How do law, policy, and technology interact? And how do these subjects relate to the
MIT’s Internet Policy Research Initiative is hosting an IPRI Track at the Industry Liason Program’s
Date: Thursday, October 5th Time: 4:30 – 5:30 PM Building 3-133 33 Mass Ave (rear)
On Wednesday, September 20, our Postgraduate Fellows — who have worked with us this summer to develop research
Erin Kenneally is a program manager in the Cyber Security Division for the Homeland Security
On 23 March 2017 (Thursday), MIT’s Internet Policy Research Initiative hosted ProPublica’s Julia Angwin for a
MIT’s Internet Policy Research Initiative was honored to host a Polish Delegation comprised of Undersecretaries
Watch a video from the Security, Privacy and the Internet here: video . The event
Admiral Michael Rogers of the U.S. Cyber Command and head of the NSA met with
Who should make decisions about our governing our digital future? And how? Current and former
Why Internet policy matters for everything from MIT’s startup culture to the global economy European
IPRI hosted Robert Hannigan, the head of the British intelligence agency GCHQ, at MIT in
An increasingly large amount of our society and economy depends on our ability to keep
While contact tracing apps can help us control the spread of COVID-19, they also come
IPRI Founding Director, Daniel Weitzner, is the co-PI of the PACT project, which aims to
In a recent New York Times article titled, Amid Pandemic and Upheaval, New Cyber Risks
** See the full technical report on OmniBallot here ** Michael A. Specter and J.
Today, during the first ImPACT 2020 event, world-leading computer scientists in cryptography, cybersecurity, and wireless
Written by Michael Specter, James Koppel, and Daniel Weitzner The below is an FAQ about
MIT PhD Students Michael Specter and James Koppel as well as MIT IPRI Founding Director
Marc Aidinoff, an IPRI student, recipient of the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy Grant, and
While nearly essential for modern-day society, the technologies we use to share information on the
On my way to work, I pass no less than three bike-sharing stations. I use
In a recent WGBH interview, Arun Rath and Larry Susskind talked about ransomeware attacks. Susskind,
The critical infrastructure that our cities rely on is not as secure as we would
How private is your personal data? In a video by Chronicle, Kade Crockford, Director of
Written by Wajeeha Ahmad. Botnets, networks of malware-infected machines controlled by an attacker called the
Back in 2012, when both Cameron Kerry and Daniel Weitzner were framing the 2012 White
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a growing number of medical devices
What is happening in the world of cybersecurity and privacy? Daniel Weitzner discussed these topics
Today’s market is full of products that can connect to the Internet. Unfortunately, this functionality
We are now in a “new, chaotic era at the Department of Homeland Security” notes
In a New York Times article, Natasha Singer discusses how U.S. students are learning about
Written by: Daniel J. Weitzner February 19, 2019 In the midst of a heated global
Authored by Michael Specter This week, the Australian parliament will hear testimony on a bill that,
Did the Russians really hack into the US Electrical Grid? Were they able to hack
By: Jonathan Frankle On February 14th, Arvind Narayanan visited IPRI from Princeton University, where he
On Wednesday, September 20, IPRI’s Postgraduate Fellows — who have worked with IPRI this summer to develop research
Expanding the Research Exemptions Provided by the Internet of Things Cybersecurity Improvement Act By: James
Should Robert Mueller keep the names of his team confidential? Why is Robert Mueller
IPRI’s R. David Edelman was featured and quoted by WIRED in “The US Government Isn’t
MIT’s interdisciplinary Internet Policy Research Initiative (IPRI) awarded $1.5 million to researchers across campus working
Donald Trump misses his own cyber security plan deadline after promising to deliver in 90
How Safe Is The Infrastructure We Consider Critical? The critical networks keep America’s lights on,
Joel Brenner gave a presentation on protecting America’s critical infrastructure from cyber attacks to InfraGard,
Report warns of hacking risk to electric grid, oil pipelines and other critical infrastructure Byline:
IPRI’s Joel Brenner was featured today on the MSNBC program “For the Record with Greta”.
‘This is an all hands on deck thing’: A former Obama technology adviser on robots,
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – On March 8, 2017, MIT announced that R. David Edelman, former White
Imagine you’re at a border crossing, and the guard asks you to hand over all
The Commercial Appeal 06-Mar-2017, by Kevin McKenzie Don’t look for the government, market forces, vendors
By: Zane Markel January 30, 2017 In the wake of the headline-grabbing Mirai DDoS attacks
A team from MIT’s Internet Policy Research Initiative has been awarded the Electronic Frontier Foundation
As the financial sector has gotten better at dealing with data breaches of payment card
Forum on Data Privacy Convened by the Massachusetts Attorney General Date: 24 Mar 2016 Thursday,
This course introduces concepts and issues in cybersecurity policy and how to design and analyze
Mandating insecurity by requiring government access to all data and communications Released: 7 July 2015
March 26, 2014 The following is an initial, personal summary of high-level observations from the
