Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

Q&A: Shiu-Kai Chin on Cybersecurity

Tuesday, July 11, 2017, By Cyndi Moritz
Share
College of Engineering and Computer SciencefacultyQ&A
Shiu-Kai Chin

Shiu-Kai Chin

Shiu-Kai Chin, professor of electrical engineering and computer science in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, director of the Center for Information and Systems Assurance and Trust, provost faculty fellow for strategic planning and Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence, is an expert on cybersecurity. He recently shared his thoughts on the spate of major cyberattacks around the world.

  • 01
    There have been a lot of major cyberattacks in recent months. Is the world poorly prepared to deal with this sort of thing?

    Most of our systems were not designed with security in mind. We are living in the equivalent of a shantytown in cyberspace, much like the shantytowns that were precursors to our major cities. Those structures were thrown up with little regard for the safety standards we now have and weren’t built to withstand the natural and human-made disasters that befell them. Once folks saw the need to build things that last, we got standards and enforcement, based on sound engineering and public policy. Cyberspace is still evolving from that shantytown into a modern city.

  • 02
    Attacks against utilities seem to have come from enemies. What about ransomware attacks? Just a moneymaking scheme?

    The ransomware attacks might be a smokescreen for something much more insidious: theft of root credentials, which renders authentication incapable of discerning between legitimate identities and fraudulent ones. This is equivalent to losing the plates for minting $100 bills.

  • 03
    Should we have been better prepared for all these attacks?

    I can point to papers written by the U.S. Air Force in 1979 about the very situation we’re in today. There is no plausible deniability. We are living with the consequences of inattention, failure of vision and poor leadership. We have valued short-term economic gain over long-term investments in safety, security and integrity.

  • 04
    What needs to happen now to enhance our cybersecurity going forward?

    In the U.S., we need to be willing to invest in it. For example, chip-enabled cards were introduced a long time ago in Europe, but U.S. financial services businesses deemed the cost of issuing new chip-enabled cards too expensive to justify—until the data breaches at Home Depot and others raised the cost of poor security. If costs continue to rise, then we might see investment in systems and new standards emerge where security—just like safety—must be rigorously required, justified and demonstrated.

  • Author
  • Faculty Experts

Cyndi Moritz

  • Shiu-Kai Chin

  • Recent
  • Vintage Over Digital: Alumnus Dan Cohen’s Voyager CD Bag Merges Music and Fashion
    Monday, July 7, 2025, By John Boccacino
  • Empowering Learners With Personalized Microcredentials, Stackable Badges
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By Hope Alvarez
  • WISE Women’s Business Center Awarded Grant From Empire State Development, Celebrates Entrepreneur of the Year Award
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By Dawn McWilliams
  • Paulo De Miranda G’00 Received ‘Much More Than a Formal Education’ From Maxwell
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By Jessica Youngman
  • Law Professor Receives 2025 Onondaga County NAACP Freedom Fund Award
    Thursday, July 3, 2025, By Robert Conrad

More In STEM

6 A&S Physicists Awarded Breakthrough Prize

Our universe is dominated by matter and contains hardly any antimatter, a notion which still perplexes top scientists researching at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The Big Bang created equal amounts of matter and antimatter, but now nearly everything—solid, liquid, gas or plasma—is…

Setting the Standard and Ensuring Justice

Everyone knows DNA plays a crucial role in solving crimes—but what happens when the evidence is of low quantity, degraded or comes from multiple individuals? One of the major challenges for forensic laboratories is interpreting this type of DNA data…

Student Innovations Shine at 2025 Invent@SU Presentations

Eight teams of engineering students presented designs for original devices to industry experts and investors at Invent@SU Final Presentations. This six-week summer program allows students to design, prototype and pitch their inventions to judges. During the program, students learn about…

WiSE Hosts the 2025 Norma Slepecky Memorial Lecture and Undergraduate Research Prize Award Ceremony

This spring, Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) held its annual Norma Slepecky Memorial Lecture and Award Ceremony. WiSE was honored to host distinguished guest speaker Joan-Emma Shea, who presented “Self-Assembly of the Tau Protein: Computational Insights Into Neurodegeneration.” Shea…

Endowed Professorship Recognizes Impact of a Professor, Mentor and Advisor

Bao-Ding “Bob” Cheng’s journey to Syracuse University in pursuit of graduate education in the 1960s was long and arduous. He didn’t have the means for air travel, so he voyaged more than 5,000 nautical miles by boat from his home…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.