Episode 143: Arun Vishwanath

Dr. Arun Vishwanath studies the “people problem” of cybersecurity. His research focuses on improving individual, organizational, and national resilience to cyber attacks by focusing on the weakest links in cyber security—Internet users. His particular interest is in understanding why people fall prey to social engineering attacks that come in through email and social media, and on ways we can harness this understanding to secure cyberspace. Dr. Vishwanath is an alumnus of the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University.  He was a tenured associate professor at the University at Buffalo and was faculty at Indiana University, Bloomington.  He serves as the CTO of Avant Research Group (ARG)—a Buffalo, New York based cyber security research and advisory firm, where he consults for major corporations and government agencies on issues ranging from cybersecurity to consumer protection. He also serves as a distinguished expert for the NSA’s Science of Security & Privacy directorate. Dr. Vishwanath’s research on improving cyber resilience against online social engineering has been funded by the National Science Foundation. He has published close to 50 articles on technology users and cybersecurity issues and his research has been presented to principals at national security and law enforcement agencies around the world. He has also presented his work at leading global security conferences, multiple times by invitation at the US Senate/SSA and House, as well as four consecutive times at BlackHat. Here’s the link to the book and the discount code. Anyone ordering the book with a US address can get 15% off The Weakest Link when you enter the discount code “READMIT15” here: The Weakest Link by Arun Vishwanath: 9780262047494 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books