Prof. Stuart Madnick’s Idea Made To Matter: Fighting Cybercriminals Through Collaboration

MIT Sloan’s Interdisciplinary Consortium Tackles National Security Issue

According to the FBI, there are only two types of companies: those that have been hacked, and those that will be.

MIT Sloan Prof. Stuart Madnick agrees. He describes today’s enterprise cybersecurity defenses as a bank vault with six-inch-thick steel doors and plywood walls – heavily fortified yet terribly vulnerable. As director of MIT Sloan School of Management’s Interdisciplinary Consortium for Improving Critical Infrastructure, (IC)³, he is tackling this issue through collaboration across MIT and with industry partners.A key focus of (IC)³ is producing metrics and models that organizations can use to measure all facets of cybersecurity and to make the best possible decisions about allocating resources to protect themselves.

The consortium looks at conventional information systems as well as the cyber-physical infrastructure and Internet of Things – the computer-controlled facilities that produce and deliver our electric power, oil and natural gas, pharmaceuticals, financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, and transportation services that form the infrastructure of a safe and secure world.

Through his work, Prof. Madnick, a faculty member at MIT Sloan since 1972, seeks to raise awareness and develop innovative solutions about this serious national security challenge. The goal, says Madnick, is that “together we can build a safer world.

”What’s your Idea Made to Matter?