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Maimon Investigates New Ways to Stop Cyber Attacks

Improved network security is only part of the solution

Cyber attacks are on the rise, but beefed-up network security may not be the only solution to the problem, University of Maryland sociologist David Maimon said in an interview with the Voice of America. Network security is only part of the problem. Maimon likened stopping hackers by improving network security to trying to solve a crime by only focusing on the gun.

Maimon’s research focuses on the motivations behind cyber attacks and the way that a potential victim’s online behavior can enable or discourage future attacks. As an example, he noted that cyber attacks at universities increase when larger numbers of foreign students from certain parts of the world are logged into the campus network. He speculated that foreign students may be giving hackers new opportunities by visiting compromised websites in their own countries. More research is needed in order to understand how online behavior influences users’ vulnerability to cyber attacks.

Dr. Maimon is a Faculty Associate at the Maryland Population Research Center.

Read the Voice of America article