CENTR Blog

The COVID-19 pandemic has considerably changed many aspects of our lives, including our thoughts, behavior, social life, technology, and school. One of the most apparent changes has been an increased dependence on technology for meetings and gatherings to comply with social distancing restrictions. During the pandemic, online collaboration platforms have replaced physical classes for many... Read More

In the 1997 film Face/Off, FBI Agent Sean Archer agrees to partake in a dubious yet necessary experimental face transplant to gain intel about a planned bombing. He takes the face of terrorist Castor Troy and sets off to do his job, but in obvious, cinematic fashion, Troy figures out the plot and forces the doctor to transplant Archer’s face on him, before killing the doctor. The film... Read More

With the first round of vaccines becoming available, we should expect to see numerous scams in the upcoming weeks about when and how to obtain one. The first doses of the vaccines will be given to healthcare workers and the elderly, those who are the most exposed and vulnerable to the coronavirus. It will be a while before the vaccine is distributed to the general public; however, that will... Read More

Rethinking the Impacts of AI

Artificial Intelligence is everywhere around you, from your refrigerators to Siri or Alexa. At a high level, AI is a computer or groups of computers thinking like a normal human. Our society values AI as a major benefit; it helps us navigate through much of life with relative ease.  However, there is a lack of knowledge when it comes to AI and the risks that it could pose. A... Read More

Section 230 and the Spread of Misinformation

A few days before the US Presidential Election, the chief executive officers of Facebook, Google, and Twitter appeared before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation for a hearing on the relevance of Section 230 in the digital world. The basis of this hearing stemmed from governmental concerns about limited transparency and accountability with content moderation... Read More

A Deep Dive into Personal Cyber Hygiene – 5 Tips to Be Safe Online and Offline

I cannot recall a time where technology was not pervasive in my life. Part of that has to do with my schooling background in computing and growing up with the internet, but it doesn’t seem too far a stretch to say that it would be difficult for many across all generations to imagine life without the internet today. The field of computing has... Read More

Cyber Security in the Time of Corona

The current COVID-19 pandemic has become a sobering experience in many ways. We are witnessing first-hand the negative impact that a fragmented national public health system has on our safety, health, and economy. Social isolation has become a stark reality/necessity for people around the globe including here in the United States. While social isolation has become the operational approach to... Read More

Do you practice good cyber hygiene habits?

Purdue faculty and students discuss what it means to be digitally safe through cyber hygiene with an all-women in IT panel discussion for Cybersecurity Awareness month. Here are some additional resources and checklists to stay up-to-date with your cyber hygiene

Certified Ethical Hackers make “hacker” a good word again

Back before computers and computer networks were ubiquitous a “hacker” was someone who liked to tinker with computers to see how they worked. More recently, “hacker” in common, albeit not entirely accurate, usage has become something of a bad word, applied to all manner of cybermiscreants, including full-out cybercriminals. But there is a new kind of hacker... Read More