Event Details

Cybersecurity at the Crossroads of Cognitive Science and Neuroscience

This talk presents an interdisciplinary perspective aiming to enrich cyber-security research. It critically appraises the human element, traditionally perceived as the most vulnerable component in cyber-security frameworks, and proposes augmentation through cognitive and neuroscientific insights. The concept of the 'human in the loop' paradigm is presented as a nexus between these research domains leading towards a novel concept, cyber-brain security. The discussion extends to the necessity of integrating AI and NLP into cyber-security, moving towards a more holistic approach than traditional, compartmentalized methods. It will include the presentation of the work done on usable security through brain imaging analysis (Mulazimoglu, Cakir, & Acarturk, 2021), and phishing (Turhanlar & Acarturk, 2021), and IoT network security (Darazam, Angin, & Acarturk, 2022). The talk will also explore challenges in cyber-security education, highlighting the need to develop 21st-century skills within this context. It emphasizes the role of academic researchers in protecting human values, guiding students away from malicious hacking, and ensuring curricula meet their expectations.

Bio Dr. Cengiz Acartürk is a faculty member at the Cognitive Science Department of Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, since 2021. He was a faculty member at the Cognitive Science and Cybersecurity Graduate Programs of the Informatics Institute, Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Turkey. He received Ph.D. from Hamburg University, Institute Knowledge and Language Processing Institute, Centre for Intelligent Systems and Robotics (ISR), Department of Informatics, in 2010. He has been conducting eye-tracking research in various domains for the past 20 years. His current research interests cover eye-tracking applications, oculomotor control in reading, NLP applications, malware detection, and human factors in cybersecurity. He has taught graduate courses on visual cognition, psychology of reading, AI, and machine learning at the Cognitive Science Program. He has taught the following courses at the Cybersecurity Graduate Program: Cybersystems and information security, human factors in cyber-physical systems, research methods, statistics, and ethics for cybersecurity. He has organized departmental seminars in cognitive science and cybersecurity. He has been involved in evaluating European Union H2020 MCSA FET OPEN and MCSA IF/PF projects as an expert reviewer and a vice-chair. He has served as an editorial board member at the Journal of Eye Movement Research, Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences, and New Ideas in Psychology, besides serving as a program committee member in numerous national and international conferences.