Stanford Cyber Initiative addresses cybersecurity, governance, and the future of work

SN: How does the Cyber Initiative address policy concerns?
McFaul: We require that all projects have an applied or policy component. We’re trying to bridge the gap between the east side of campus and the west side. We want to see more computer scientists interacting with social scientists, lawyers and even philosophers, as there are many ethical and moral issues that need to be addressed.

For example, Amy Zegart and her team at the Center for International Security and Cooperation and the Hoover Institution hosted the Cyber Boot Camp. They assembled congressional staffers who deal with cybersecurity issues as well as other experts to discuss the most pressing challenges in cyberspace. What could be a more direct impact than educating them about these topics? In the realm of disinformation, a consortium of researchers affiliated with the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law are investigating the role that foreign governments played in our election, exploring what regulations should look like and the difference between First Amendment rights and foreign interference.

Then, there is wide disagreement about whether artificial intelligence is going to make us all better off or whether it’s going to make us all unemployed. Scholars supported by the initiative are trying to address this. Understanding the relationship between new technologies and the workforce will eventually help federal, state and local government officials, as well as companies, schools and trade unions, to develop appropriate policies.

Boneh: On the technical side, many new technologies that can be beneficial to end users are not adopted because they do not match companies’ incentives. Good tech policy can incentivize companies to adopt those beneficial technologies that improve privacy and security for clients or consumers. We want policies that promote computer security, but at the same time, we do not want to stifle innovation or greatly increase operating costs. At Stanford, we are in a unique position to make progress on these issues.  We have a strong collaboration with the tech industry and the ears of policymakers in D.C.

SN: Why is it important to work across disciplines when addressing cyber concerns?
Boneh: It brings together researchers who normally do not interact much. Every project that we fund crosses school boundaries. It brings faculty in the humanities to work with faculty in engineering, and that is not something that happens very often. You cannot do policy without understanding technology and effective technology needs to understand the policy implications. I recently taught a class with colleagues at the law school on cyber policy and the law. This is not something I would have done had it not been for the Cyber Initiative.

McFaul: Virtually every field is being impacted by new technologies, but expertise in cyber policy is not easily defined. I can tell you which are the five top journals in my field of political science – and if you want to advance your career, you publish there. I’m not sure I could name them in cyber policy. It feels to me like the technology is ahead of the policy, and a lot of the traditional security experts are not well-versed in computer science and engineering, including me.  Conversely, those most expert in cyber technologies have paid little attention to national security, democracy or the future of capitalism. By bringing these researchers together, we increase understanding of technology’s role across fields.

SN: How is the Cyber Initiative educating Stanford students?
McFaul: There is growing demand for courses that cross disciplines to address the rapidly evolving landscape of cybersecurity. We are training the next generation of leaders who will shape this field. Some of our new classes focus on cybersecurity and the law, fake news, privacy policies, how algorithms affect human perception, Facebook’s foreign policy, and how technology affects elections. What’s striking to me is that we’re still in the early stages of incorporating cyber components into courses, curriculum and degrees.

Here at FSI, we have a master’s degree in international policy studies, which will soon launch a new specialization in cyber policy. It will be one of the first in the country. But what is the content of such a program? It turns out that’s a pretty contentious issue and we’re wrestling with it right now.