Kosal Speaks in Vienna on Big Data and Nonproliferation
Posted February 4, 2015
Nunn School Assistant Professor Margaret E. Kosal gave an invited talk on “Big Data Analytics, the Life Sciences, & Transnational Security Threats” at King’s College London Policy Institute-organized workshop on “Open Source and Big Data Methodologies for Nonproliferation” in Vienna at the end of January.
Kosal spoke about challenges in big data analytics and biosecurity in the areas of governance, intent, and technical capabilities. Among the governance challenges, the first is the inherent difficulty of creating laws or other governance means for technology that does not yet exist. The second is the challenge of addressing challenges of 21st century technology using 20th century institutions. In the area of motivation, there is a need to address multiple actors and groups (including states) that may have disparate motivations. She spoke of risks that include, but are not limited to, vulnerabilities of datasets to cyber intrusion and design of biological agents intended for harmful or criminal purposes derived from the integration and analysis of big data in the life sciences. The possibilities and perils of big data analytics and the life sciences are example of the power of converging technologies.
The workshop, held at the Vienna Centre for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation and sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation, brought together technical and policy experts, representatives of industry, representatives of the IAEA, and government officials to discuss approaches and uses of open source research methodologies in support of nonproliferation. Topics covered included big data in academia, applied uses of big data, uses of big data in government and security, and the law enforcement and legal implications of big data.
Working at the intersection of science and security, Dr. Margaret Kosal is among the foremost experts on the weapons of mass destruction and the national security implications of emerging and dual-use technologies; such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, and the cognitive neurosciences. She previously served as an expert on the US Government’s first formal working group assessing the current state of big data and analytics, the benefits and risks of big data in the life sciences to national security, and needed solutions for addressing exploitation of system vulnerabilities or intentional use for harmful or criminal purposes. Kosal earned a doctoral degree in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and has served previously in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), and as an advisor to the Chief of Staff of the US Army as part of his Strategic Studies Group (SSG). Her book Nanotechnology for Chemical and Biological Defense (Springer Academic Publishers, 2009) explores scenarios and strategies regarding the benefits and potential proliferation threats of nanotechnology and other emerging sciences for national security.