About the WATCH series:

Transforming today's trusted but untrustworthy cyberinfrastructure into one that can meet society's growing demands requires both technical advances and improved understanding of how people and organizations of many backgrounds perceive, decide to adopt, and actually use technology. WATCH aims to provide thought-provoking talks by innovative thinkers with ideas that illuminate these challenges and provide signposts toward solutions. The series is jointly organized by NSF's Computer Science and Engineering (CISE) and Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Directorates and the Office of Cyberinfrastructure (OCI), and sponsored by the CISE Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) Program. Talks will be recorded and made available over the Internet.

Abstract

Deception and Cybersecurity

Deception is one of the most significant and pervasive social phenomena of our age, but the psychology of deception is poorly understood in the context of cybersecurity. We know little about important questions, including:  How does communication technology change the ways and reasons we deceive others? Can people detect if they are being lied to in online contexts any better (or worse) than offline? And can computer programs identify patterns on the Internet that reveal whether someone is lying or not that can exceed human-detection? In this talk we will examine these questions and recent research that may shed some light on the answers, focusing on the motivations for deception, a review of the state-of-the-art in deception detection research, and a sense of what the future holds for the way we lie.

Speaker

Jeff Hancock is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Communication and Information Science. He is currently the Chair of the Information Science Department and the co-Director of Cognitive Science at Cornell University.  He is also Associate Editor of Discourse Processes. His work is concerned with how social media affect psychological and interpersonal processes, with a particular emphasis on understanding how language can reveal psychological and social dynamics, such as deception and credibility, emotional contagion, intimacy and relationships, and social support. Funding from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense supports his research, which has been frequently featured in the popular media, including the New York Times, CNN, NPR, and the BBC. Dr. Hancock earned his PhD in psychology at Dalhousie University, Canada, and joined Cornell in 2002.

About NSF
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2009, its budget is $9.5 billion, which includes $3.0 billion provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to over 1,900 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 44,400 competitive requests for funding, and makes over 11,500 new funding awards.MORE