Dawn or Doom
Eugene H. Spafford

Eugene H. Spafford

"Balancing Privacy and Surveillance"

Thursday, September 24

STEW 214 AB: 1:30 - 2:30 PM

Government agencies want to identify criminals and disruptive elements before they can act. Commercial entities want to better understand potential customers. In both cases, greater monitoring and data analysis can provide answers to questions such as “Is she going to commit a robbery?” and “What does he want to buy?” The downside to this is that extensive surveillance and analysis also catches lots of material that is innocent…and that we don’t want to share.

In this talk I’ll discuss some of the tradeoffs we see in personal privacy and increased surveillance. I’ll also outline some of the approaches that have been suggested as means to limit surveillance and regain control over (parts of) our personal privacy.


Bio: Eugene H. Spafford is one of the world’s most senior cyber security authorities. He is the only person to receive all three of the National Computer Security Award, be inducted into the Cyber Security Hall of Fame, and receive the Hal Tipton Award. He is also the only person ever to be named as a Fellow of all of the (ISC)², ISSA, ACM, IEEE, and AAAS. During his 30+ years in computing—including 27 years as a faculty member at Purdue University -- Spaf (as he is widely known) has addressed issues of privacy, public policy, law enforcement, software engineering, education, social networks, and cyber security, including development of fundamental technologies in widespread use today. He is the founder and currently executive director of CERIAS, the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security at Purdue.