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

Click here for a list of publications and resources

ABOUT THIS BLOG

click above to read more about this blog and watch the short animation below

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    April 2, 2025

  • USA Today: Cyberattacks on Critical Infrastructure Are Increasingly Common

    January 10, 2025

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    December 18, 2024

  • Boston Globe: How to Thwart Hackers (Local Cybersecurity)

    June 5, 2023

  • Quick guide to the 6 ways we can regulate AI (MIT Tech Review)

    May 30, 2023

  • World agencies issue cybersecurity guidance for smart cities

    April 27, 2023

  • The Electronic Frontier Foundation Opinion Piece on the U.N. Cybercrime Treaty

    April 18, 2023

  • Cyberattacks on local governments 2020: findings from a key informant survey

    February 21, 2023

  • strategic approach to identify, stop and punish cyberattackers (Third Way Cyber Enforcement Initiative)

    December 12, 2022

  • Cyberattack Causes Trains to Stop in Denmark

    November 7, 2022

more

Michigan State University Refuses to Pay Ransom

June 11, 2020

Samuel Zwickel writes for the Detroit Free Press about Michigan State University's refusal to give into a hacker threatening to publish students’ personal records and university financial documents if the university fails to pay an unspecified ransom. Read the full article.

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