We believe that security issues are central to a thorough computer-science education and students should receive early exposure to this important subject. Graduates will find no shortage of work. In the private sector, attacks from outside and inside are increasingly costly. If you are connected to the Internet, your machine may be vulnerable. All three professors employ complex mathematical methods to define tenets of privacy and security and to construct the elaborate programs needed to give a computer system selective self-defense.
Bishop teaches vulnerability analysis as a tactical struggle against conventional thinking.
Bishop wants to teach computer designers and programmers to make new systems more secure. Karl Levitt works in the fast-growing field of smart intrusion detectors. The programs, which constantly survey a system for attacks, are in great demand. But the current detectors can only recognize known attacks and record suspicious events for later review. The programs could even sever the connection or divert the intruder into a fabricated region of the system, called a fishbowl, for observation.