May 10, 2012

Chancellor's Breakfast to Focus on Cybercrime and the Cyber Underground Economy

From phony anti-virus programs to click fraud, law-breaking is thriving online, where old-school schemes are being adapted for the digital age, and mind-boggling new scams are being devised at a dizzying pace. Call it Organized Crime 2.0 –– and call Richard Kemmerer a modern-day Eliot Ness. A computer science professor at UC Santa Barbara, where he holds the Leadership Endowed Chair in Computer Science, Kemmerer and his Computer Security Group are studying the web's criminal networks and underground economy –– with an eye toward shutting them down.

Guests at a Chancellor's Community Breakfast, hosted by UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang, will hear Kemmerer discuss such subjects when he speaks on "Cybercrime and the Cyber Underground Economy," at 7:30 a.m., on Thursday, May 24.

The breakfast will be held at the Santa Barbara Club, 1105 Chapala St. Parking is available. The cost to attend is $20, and payment must be made in advance. Reservations can be requested by calling (805) 893-2877. Checks should be made payable to the UC Regents, and mailed to the Office of Public Events, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106.

Kemmerer's group is currently focused on modeling the myriad aspects of the underground economy in hopes of understanding exactly how they work –– and how they can be stopped. "The real goal is, where can you perturb it to make life more difficult, if not impossible, for these people?" he said.

Kemmerer is a principal investigator on many government and private sector projects. He is a fellow of both the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society and the Association for Computing Machinery. A past vice president of the IEEE Computer Society, he currently serves on that body's board of governors. Kemmerer has served on several National Academy of Sciences committees.

About UC Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara is a leading research institution that also provides a comprehensive liberal arts learning experience. Our academic community of faculty, students, and staff is characterized by a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration that is responsive to the needs of our multicultural and global society. All of this takes place within a living and learning environment like no other, as we draw inspiration from the beauty and resources of our extraordinary location at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.