event

Cybersecurity Lecture Series - Wei Meng

Primary tabs

Meet academic and industry leaders for intimate discussions about new cyber threats, trends and technologies.

The Cybersecurity Lecture Series is a free, open-to-the-public lecture from a thought leader who is advancing the field of information security and privacy. Invited speakers include executives and researchers from private companies, government agencies, start-up incubators as well as Georgia Tech faculty and students presenting their research.

Held weekly each Friday at Noon through Apr. 21, lectures are open to all -- students, faculty, industry, government, or simply the curious. Graduate students may register for credit under seminar course CS-8001-INF.

Complimentary lunch provided for registered guests. Please bring your own beverage.

Sign up to receive future lecture announcements.

 

Featuring Wei Meng on Feb. 17, 2017

"Worse Than You Thought: New Security Threats in Online Tracking"

ABSTRACT   |   When we browse a website, data about us is collected and used by the website we directly visit and by many we do not. Collected data usually is used to provide us with better services. On the other hand, collected data may be used in ways that are out of our control. Although this practice can integrate content from different parties for a personalized, rich and dynamic online experience, it also puts users' data at risk.

In this talk I will first describe a new threat that pollutes the collected user data to influence what we see. For example, adversaries can promote a search result on Google, a video on YouTube, or a product on Amazon. Malicious publishers can leverage similar exploits to commit ad fraud. I will then present TrackMeOrNot, a system that provides end users with better control of how they are tracked online. TrackMeOrNot aims to preserve a good online experience while protecting a user's privacy. It uses an anonymous browsing profile to intelligently and automatically hide a user's sensitive browsing activity from online trackers. I will also discuss other emerging threats in online tracking.

 

BIO   |   Wei Meng is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Computer Science at Georgia Tech, advised by Prof. Wenke Lee. Meng studies web security and privacy. He is particularly interested in building systems to protect end users. His research shows how online tracking and personalization can be abused to compromise the integrity and privacy of personal data. Meng was one of the top-10 finalists in the applied research competition of New York University's Cyber Security Awareness Week '16 for his recent work about online tracking. He received his Bachelor's of Engineering in Computer Science from Tsinghua University in 2012.

 

 

Status

  • Workflow Status:Published
  • Created By:Tara La Bouff
  • Created:02/02/2017
  • Modified By:Fletcher Moore
  • Modified:04/13/2017

Keywords