Since the 1970s, (now) Dr. Cohen has done research
in the area of information protection (and what is now called
cybersecurity) and areas that were once called Artificial Intelligence
(AI) and as they become widely used and normalized are subsequently
identified as automation. His research can best be understood by
reading his monthly articles, books, and taking in other related
information online at all.net.
He is best known as the inventor of computer viruses and virus defense
techniques, his work on critical infrastructure protection,
deception toolkit and other deception-related defenses, his work in
digital forensics including the physics of digital information, and
his work in cognitive defense. But his work extends well beyond these
areas. In the 1970s he designed network protocols for secure digital
networks carrying voice, video, and data; and he helped develop and
prototype the electronic cashwatch for implementing personal digital
money systems. In the 1980s, he developed integrity mechanisms for
secure operating systems, consulted for many major corporations,
taught short courses in information
protection to over 10,000 students worldwide, and in 1989, he won
the prestigious international Information Technology Award
for his work on integrity protection. In the first half of the 1990s,
he developed protection testing and audit techniques and systems,
secure Internet servers and systems, and defensive information warfare
techniques and systems. In the 2nd half of the 1990s he worked at
Sandia National Laboratories where his research focused on national
security issues, generally in the cyber-realm. In the 2000s his work
focused largely on countering malicious influence campaigns and
cognitive computing, cyber-security governance and architecture,
digital forensic evidence examination, and related areas. In the
2010s, his most interesting long-term work was on the physics of
digital information and standards of practice. In the 2010s, insider
threats, protection for archives and records management, supply chain
issues, and a wide range of other issues of global interest were
infused into his research efforts. Since 2020, he continued to work in
a wide range of areas, including cognitive computing and defenses and
the limits and capabilities of emerging language models. All told,
the protection techniques he pioneered are now used in more than three
quarters of all the computers in the world.
His research today focuses largely on cognitive
computing, countering disinformation, useful applications and
limitations of current artificial intelligence methods, decision
support, automating cyber-security methods, and risk management. His
current areas of research emphasis are in (1) malicious influence (and
deception) and countermeasures, (2) creating "secure" systems, and (3)
the role of information in conflict and conflict resolution.
Fred has authored hundreds of invited, refereed, and
other scientific and management research articles, and has written
several widely read books on information protection and related subjects.
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