Australia and the US working together to combat cybersecurity threats using bots and humans
CATCH: Cybersecurity Assurance for Teams of Computers and Humans
Associate Professor Shlomo Berkovsky (Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University) along with Professor Dali Kaafar (Optus Macquarie University Cyber Security Hub) are part of a new joint US-Australia cybersecurity research project. The project led in Australia by the University of Melbourne was recently awarded a successful grant under the US-Australia International Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (AUSMURI).
The interdisciplinary team brings together diverse expertise spanning computer security, machine learning, psychology, decision sciences, and human-computer interaction, on the initiative dubbed CATCH: Cybersecurity Assurance for Teams of Computers and Humans.
To address the growing challenge and complexity of cybersecurity defence, machine learning bots have become part of cybersecurity defence teams alongside human analysts. These bots reduce the burden on human analysts by filtering the plethora of information involved in a cyberattack, thus freeing up cognitive resources for tasks related to the high-level mission.
The new research will address the gap in understanding how to manage, observe, and improve hybrid teams that are made up of humans and autonomous machines, particularly in the face of adversaries.
Cybersecurity poses ongoing challenges to information assets and processes of all organisations, and AI systems, which directly shape decision-making, bring new risks. Detecting change in algorithm function or failure to function may not occur until long after a breach has occurred, and only when AI functions incorrectly.
In the human-machine collaboration context, understanding the reason behind each human decision is critical for interpreting the performance of the human-machine team. The outcomes of this project will inform the design of tools for collaborative human-machine teams in several domains, including medical and financial technologies.“ says Associate Professor Berkovsky.
Associate Professor Berkovsky’s expertise in data science, human-computer interaction and a background in both academia and industry together with overseas experience provides valuable skills and knowledge to the project. He has been working closely on a range of research projects with the Optus Macquarie University Cyber Security Hub.
Find out more about human computer interaction in Associate Professor Berkovsky’s article: Do I trust my machine teammate? An investigation from perception to decision.
The seven universities in the project group are: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Carnegie Mellon University, University of California San Diego, Penn State, University of Melbourne, Macquarie University, and University of Newcastle.
Read more in the Macquarie Newsroom
Read the Department of Defence media release
News photo by FLY:D on Unsplash
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