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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Lindsey Panetta, lindsey.panetta@gtri.gatech.edu
Summary Sentence: Ph.D. Student Wei Meng presents research about how personalization services and online tracking can be abused to compromise the privacy and integrity of personal data.
Full Summary: No summary paragraph submitted.
Cybersecurity Lecture SeriesThe Cybersecurity Lecture Series is a free, open-to-the-public lecture from a thought leader who is advancing the field of information security and privacy. Invited speakers include executives and researchers from private companies, government agencies, start-up incubators as well as Georgia Tech faculty and students presenting their research.
Held weekly each Friday at Noon through Apr. 21, lectures are open to all -- students, faculty, industry, government, or simply the curious. Graduate students may register for credit under seminar course CS-8001-INF.
Complimentary lunch provided for registered guests. Please bring your own beverage.
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ABSTRACT | When we browse a website, data about us is collected and used by the website we directly visit and by many we do not. Collected data usually is used to provide us with better services. On the other hand, collected data may be used in ways that are out of our control. Although this practice can integrate content from different parties for a personalized, rich and dynamic online experience, it also puts users' data at risk.
In this talk I will first describe a new threat that pollutes the collected user data to influence what we see. For example, adversaries can promote a search result on Google, a video on YouTube, or a product on Amazon. Malicious publishers can leverage similar exploits to commit ad fraud. I will then present TrackMeOrNot, a system that provides end users with better control of how they are tracked online. TrackMeOrNot aims to preserve a good online experience while protecting a user's privacy. It uses an anonymous browsing profile to intelligently and automatically hide a user's sensitive browsing activity from online trackers. I will also discuss other emerging threats in online tracking.
BIO | Wei Meng is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Computer Science at Georgia Tech, advised by Prof. Wenke Lee. Meng studies web security and privacy. He is particularly interested in building systems to protect end users. His research shows how online tracking and personalization can be abused to compromise the integrity and privacy of personal data. Meng was one of the top-10 finalists in the applied research competition of New York University's Cyber Security Awareness Week '16 for his recent work about online tracking. He received his Bachelor's of Engineering in Computer Science from Tsinghua University in 2012.
