Professor Dr. Lanier Watkins

Biography

Lanier Watkins is the chair of the Johns Hopkins Engineering Professionals Master’s programs in Computer Science and Cybersecurity, where he develops innovative algorithms and frameworks to address the continually changing needs for defending critical infrastructure networks and systems. His research efforts concentrate on five areas: 1) network security, specifically introducing new covert channels, cloud paradigms, and network-based detectors to produce offensive and defensive capabilities; 2) Internet of Things (IoT) security, with a focus on mobile, cyber-physical, and wireless sensor/medical device security; 3) vulnerability monitoring and analysis, which involves introducing new risk management and security assessment frameworks for IoT devices; 4) malware monitoring and analysis, exploring active malware defenses and contributing to the increasingly popular ‘hacking back’ paradigm; and 5) data analytics measured by artificial intelligence, investigating the use of autonomous decision-making methods in AI assurance security to help data scientists and engineers defend against traditional threats and inevitable adversarial AI threats. In addition to advising, lecturing, and mentoring, Watkins is the principal staff section supervisor of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Group within the Asymmetric Operations Sector at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He also holds a secondary appointment as an associate research professor at the JHU Information Security Institute. Prior to joining APL, Watkins worked for over ten years in industry with Ford Motor Company and AT&T.

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