• Detecting, Blocking Grid Cyberattacks

    Researchers have designed and demonstrated a technology that can block cyberattacks from impacting the nation’s electric power grid.

  • How Do We Prepare for Extreme Flooding?

    As the floodwaters recede following the devastating deluge in western Europe, survivors have begun the long, difficult process of cleaning up and rebuilding. But what can be done to reduce future risks?

  • Report from Europe’s Flood Zone: Researcher Calls Out Early Warning System Gridlock amid Shocking Loss of Life

    In my Ph.D. research, I study how we can effectively adapt to the consequences of increasing severe weather events under climate change and what can be done to prepare for them and mitigate their impact. One area I’m interested in is early warning systems, or the lack thereof, during extreme weather events, such as the recent floods in western Europe. While the climate is certainly a complex system that is difficult to predict with any certainty, the unfolding catastrophe is a sad reminder of just how inadequate early warning systems can be.

  • Can the Destructive Bootleg Fire Teach Us to Prevent Wildfires Before They Start?

    More and more, people are moving to less populous, woodland regions of the country, a phenomenon that puts more people in the path of potential wildfires and requires critical utilities such as power and water to be transported long distances from their origins. This creates a system of infrastructure that’s vulnerable to major disruptions—which is exactly what happened in the Bootleg fire.

  • Climate Change’s Role in Germany’s Deadly Floods

    Massive flooding has caused devastation across parts of central Europe. In Germany, more than 125 have been confirmed dead, with hundreds still missing and thousands driven from their homes. Scientists say that climate change had a role in it.

  • Climate Change to Bring More Intense Storms Across Europe

    Climate change is driving a large increase in intense, slow-moving storms, a new study finds. It is these slow-moving storms that have the potential for very high precipitation accumulations, with devastating impacts, as we saw in Germany and Belgium.

  • Did the Cybersecurity Workforce Gap Distract Us from the Leak?

    There are 500,000 unfilled cybersecurity positions in the United States, and the number is growing. The government and private companies have been investing a lot of money and effort in training and recruiting young cybertalent through college programs, school partnerships, and by adjusting pay and benefit packages, but many have missed a significant leak in cyber workforce funnel: the rapid burnout and churn. In fact, the cyber workforce gap is in experienced roles, not junior levels. To fill the cyber workforce gap, we need to find ways to retain experienced cybersecurity talent.

  • Developing Cohesive, Domestic Rare Earth Element Technologies

    The U.S. has adequate domestic REE resources, but its supply chain is vulnerable due to dependence on foreign entities for separation and purification of these elements. DARPA program aims to fortify supply chain by utilizing bioengineering approaches to facilitate REE separation and purification.

  • Exploring Rare Earth Elements Opportunities

    The purified form of REE is primarily sourced from foreign nations, so the U.S. supply chain of the rare earth elements presents a problem. Justin Wilson, a Cornell chemistry professor, has received a DOE grant to develop more efficient methods of separating rare earth elements that will make their domestic availability economically viable.

  • Mapping How Sea-Level Rise Adaptation Strategies Impact Economies, Floodwaters

    Sea levels are expected to rise by almost seven feet in the Bay Area by 2100. New research shows how traditional approaches to combating sea-level rise can create a domino effect of environmental and economic impacts for nearby communities.

  • Infrastructure for a Changing Climate

    As the U.S. debates whether and how to invest in its infrastructure, a lot is at stake, said Mariette diChristina, dean of the College of Communication at Boston University. “Infrastructure is built to last for decades — sometimes even a hundred years or more — so what we decide to do today will have a large effect on how things go tomorrow, including how we adapt to or mitigate climate change in the future.”

  • Making Infrastructure Pay Off

    James M. Poterba, an MIT economist, advocates for cost-benefit analyses of projects, finds that repairing infrastructure often pays off more than new projects, and suggests that infrastructure user fees be considered as a source of financing for projects. He argues that the value in repairs, upgrades, and user fees to help fund projects has been overlooked.

  • EU Agrees on Global Infrastructure Plan to Rival China’s Belt and Road Initiative

    On Monday the EU announced an ambitious global infrastructure plan which aims to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Western governments fear that China’s project encourages countries to take on large Chinese loans which can turn into “debt traps,” allowing China to leverage these debts for political purposes. Monday’s initiative continues a recent phase of greater assertiveness by the EU towards China.

  • Empty Threats and Warnings on Cyber

    It is not easy or simple to fashion a retaliation for cyberattacks, and the United States has been offering proof of that. For at least five years, the United States has been subject to a series of intensifying Russian cyberattacks, and public warnings by the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations about the “consequences” for Russia have so far done little, if anything, to deter Russia. “Even if Biden responds to the latest ransomware operations, and he surely will, it is hard to see how he can impose pain enough to slow the operations while at the same time avoiding a serious risk of on-balance harmful escalation,” Jack Goldsmith writes.

  • Closing the Skills Gap in the Cyber Workforce

    There are currently more than three million unfilled cybersecurity jobs globally, and, as high-profile incidents like the Solar Winds attack demonstrate, it is vital to address that shortage. But it is difficult for organizations to find and recruit the cyber talent they need.