Semantic Hacking: Intelligence and Security Informatics

Dr. Paul Thompson

Institute for Security Technology Studies

Dartmouth College

Date: Monday February 28, 2005

Time: 12:20 p.m. - 1:10 p.m.

Location: 367 Votey

Abstract

This presentation describes research on cognitive and semantic attacks on computer systems and their users. Two specific applications are discussed: a) a content-based approach to detecting insider misuse, and b) a system to detect misinforming news items on the Internet. The insider misuse system uses Hidden Markov Models to represent stages in the Evidence-Based Intelligence Analysis Process Model (EBIAPM). This approach is seen as a potential application for the Process Query System / Tracking and Fusion Engine (PQS/TRAFEN). The second system, a semantic hacking countermeasure, has been implemented as the prototype News Verifier system. It is argued that because misinformation and deception play a much more significant role in intelligence and security informatics than in other informatics disciplines such as science, medicine, and the law, a new science of intelligence and security informatics must concern itself with semantic attacks and countermeasures.

(Co-sponsored with the Computer Security Lab, Department of Computer Science)