UF Partners With CIA on Improving Cybersecurity

From the shutdown of an oil pipeline to disrupted access to government, business and healthcare system databases, high-profile cyberattacks in 2021 prompted heightened interest in improving the nation’s cybersecurity. Answers on how to do that may come from a collaboration between the University of Florida and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the first of its kind in the nation.

The university and the CIA have entered an agreement to study how artificial intelligence and machine learning applications (AIML) can be used to detect and deter malicious agents that infiltrate computer networks. The work will be carried out by researchers associated with UF’s Florida Institute for National Security.

“If you’re operating retroactively in cybersecurity, oftentimes you are too late,” said Damon Woodard, principle researcher and newly appointed director of the Florida Institute for National Security. “This collaboration will accelerate our ability to understand and expand the research on AI applications of AIML to cybersecurity.”

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