Abstract:

In this talk, I will start from a brief introduction of RC3 center and KAUST. After that, I will present an exploration of two cornerstone areas in cybersecurity: applied cryptography and artificial intelligence (AI). Beginning with an in-depth examination of applied cryptography, I uncover its fundamental principles and diverse applications, emphasizing its crucial role in data security and privacy.

Moving forward, I pivot to the frontier of AI for cybersecurity, where I unveil recent breakthroughs and advancements that are revolutionizing password guessing attacks and data forgettability.

Through this journey, I aim to highlight the synergies between applied cryptography and AI, showcasing how their integration can enhance cybersecurity measures and protect sensitive information in an increasingly digital landscape.

About the speaker:

Dr. Xiaojie Zhu is a staff research scientist at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia. He earned his Ph.D. from University of Oslo, Norway.

His research interests are data security and privacy, software security, decentralized trust and infrastructure, applied cryptography, and AI for cybersecurity.

He has published in prestigious journals and conferences such as IEEE TDSC, IEEE TPDS, IEEE TIFS, and DSN. One of his articles was included in the 21st annual Best of Computing by ACM Computing Reviews. He has also reviewed papers for reputed journals such as IEEE TIFS, IEEE TDSC, IEEE TPDS, IEEE TII, and IEEE IOT. He has been a board member of the Norwegian Research School of Computer and Information Security and a TPC member/General Chair/Program Chair at high-profile international conferences on scalable computing and cybersecurity.