SOCIAL CYBERDEFENSE OF
URBAN CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

A blog discussing how to leverage social engineering to defend against technical cyberattacks

MIT CYBERSECURITY CLINIC

The new MIT Cybersecurity Clinic (11.274 and 11.074) will be offered in both the fall and spring semester at MIT. 

The Cybersecurity Clinic will consist of four-modules : Cybersecurity for Critical Urban Infrastructure: Understanding the Problem; How the MIT Cybersecurity Clinic Makes Initial Contact with potential Client Agencies; Onsite Assessment of Cybersecurity Vulnerability by MIT Clinic Staff; and Prepare and Submit a Final Cybersecurity Vulnerability Assessment to a Client Agency. MIT students who want to take on field assignments with the Cybersecurity Clinic (for academic credit) must pass the certification examination offered at the end of the fourth module. 

Students who have achieved certification, will work in teams supervised by advanced doctoral and post-doctoral students during the last nine weeks of the spring semester to collaborate with an assigned client agency to prepare a Cyberattack Vulnerability Assessment for a client agency.  

WHO WE ARE

We are developing a new class of non-technical strategies against cyberattacks called Defensive Social Engineering.  Cyber defenders can use Defensive Social Engineering along with technical tools to defeat or compromise attackers. One technique in the Defensive Social Engineering toolbox is Cyber Negotiation. This research is supported by MIT’s Internet Policy Research Initiative (IPRI).  

RESOURCES

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ABOUT THIS BLOG

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Will paying ransomware demands yield less expensive and faster results for Florida city?

June 20, 2019
A cyber attack crippled the computers of Riviera Beach, forcing operations into a pre-Internet age | Palm Beach Post, Melanie Bell

Patricia Mazzei’s June 19th, 2019 New York Times article, 'Hit by Ransomware Attack, Florida City Agrees to Pay Hackers $600,000,’ follows the approach that the city of Riviera Beach took when confronted with a cyber intrusion and ransomeware attack. In contrast to the estimated $18 billion of damages accrued during a similar cyberattack on the city of Baltimore, Riviera Beach city council members elected to authorize a $592,000 ransom payment with the hopes of restoring their online systems and data. We wonder whether city officials tried to negotiate the terms of the ransom with the attackers as suggested by Dr. Gregory Falco and Professor Larry Susskind in their recent article in the Journal of Cyber Policy (Issue 1, Volume 4, 2019).