Computer science professor studies the intersection of cybersecurity and AI
Computer science professor studies the intersection of cybersecurity and AI
https://news.uga.edu/computer-science-professor-studies-the-intersection-of-cybersecurity-and-ai/
Publish Date: 2026-02-20 11:29:00
Source Domain: news.uga.edu
Phishing attacks. Jailbreaking and social engineering attacks. Malicious advertisements. These have all become part of the day in the life for most everyone who depends on a web connection for their work and livelihood. University of Georgia cybersecurity expert Roberto Perdisci welcomes a greater awareness of the threats that have long been at the center of his professional life.
“I initially came to the U.S. as a research scholar to deepen my doctoral work in Italy, which was at the intersection of machine learning and cybersecurity,” said Perdisci, Patty and D.R. Grimes Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and director of the UGA Institute of Cybersecurity and Privacy. “And back then, it was already a big thing.”
Attracted to the U.S. to work with Wenke Lee, Regents’ Professor and John P. Imlay Jr. Chair in Software in the Georgia Tech College of Computing, Perdisci completed a post-doctoral fellowship with Lee after finishing his Ph.D. and joined the UGA faculty in 2010.
The quick transition is indicative of what continues to be a high demand field. “With all the development of AI agents, the intersection with cybersecurity has become even more prevalent,” he said.
Perdisci’s research primarily focuses on using machine learning and AI as tools to improve cybersecurity, rather than the safety and security of AI systems themselves. Understanding the distinction is instructive to understanding the many uses — and potential misuses — of large language models.
Security and safety of AI models themselves refer to attacks on AI systems, whether self-driving cars that encounter defaced road signs or nefarious attempts to trick an LLM such as Open AI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini with illicit or illegal prompts. “That’s known as jailbreaking, because the AI system is working within safeguards, and you’re trying to break those safeguards to misuse the…
