Latest news with #UniversityOfNotreDame
Fast Company
10-07-2025
- Fast Company
Data privacy is failing. Here's what encryption and MFA can (and can't) do
Cybersecurity and data privacy are constantly in the news. Governments are passing new cybersecurity laws. Companies are investing in cybersecurity controls such as firewalls, encryption, and awareness training at record levels. And yet, people are losing ground on data privacy. In 2024, the Identity Theft Resource Center reported that companies sent out 1.3 billion notifications to the victims of data breaches. That's more than triple the notices sent out the year before. It's clear that despite growing efforts, personal data breaches are not only continuing, but accelerating. What can you do about this situation? Many people think of the cybersecurity issue as a technical problem. They're right: Technical controls are an important part of protecting personal information, but they are not enough. As a professor of information technology, analytics, and operations at the University of Notre Dame, I study ways to protect personal privacy. Solid personal privacy protection is made up of three pillars: accessible technical controls, public awareness of the need for privacy, and public policies that prioritize personal privacy. Each plays a crucial role in protecting personal privacy. A weakness in any one puts the entire system at risk. The first line of defense Technology is the first line of defense, guarding access to computers that store data and encrypting information as it travels between computers to keep intruders from gaining access. But even the best security tools can fail when misused, misconfigured, or ignored. Two technical controls are especially important: encryption and multifactor authentication (MFA). These are the backbone of digital privacy—and they work best when widely adopted and properly implemented. Encryption uses complex math to put sensitive data in an unreadable format that can only be unlocked with the right key. For example, your web browser uses HTTPS encryption to protect your information when you visit a secure webpage. This prevents anyone on your network—or any network between you and the website—from eavesdropping on your communications. Today, nearly all web traffic is encrypted in this way. But if we're so good at encrypting data on networks, why are we still suffering all of these data breaches? The reality is that encrypting data in transit is only part of the challenge. Securing stored data We also need to protect data wherever it's stored—on phones, laptops, and the servers that make up cloud storage. Unfortunately, this is where security often falls short. Encrypting stored data, or data at rest, isn't as widespread as encrypting data that is moving from one place to another. While modern smartphones typically encrypt files by default, the same can't be said for cloud storage or company databases. Only 10% of organizations report that at least 80% of the information they have stored in the cloud is encrypted, according to a 2024 industry survey. This leaves a huge amount of unencrypted personal information potentially exposed if attackers manage to break in. Without encryption, breaking into a database is like opening an unlocked filing cabinet—everything inside is accessible to the attacker. Multifactor authentication is a security measure that requires you to provide more than one form of verification before accessing sensitive information. This type of authentication is more difficult to crack than a password alone because it requires a combination of different types of information. It often combines something you know, such as a password, with something you have, such as a smartphone app that can generate a verification code or with something that's part of what you are, like a fingerprint. Proper use of multifactor authentication reduces the risk of compromise by 99.22%. While 83% of organizations require that their employees use multifactor authentication, according to another industry survey, this still leaves millions of accounts protected by nothing more than a password. As attackers grow more sophisticated and credential theft remains rampant, closing that 17% gap isn't just a best practice—it's a necessity. Multifactor authentication is one of the simplest, most effective steps organizations can take to prevent data breaches, but it remains underused. Expanding its adoption could dramatically reduce the number of successful attacks each year. Awareness gives people the knowledge they need Even the best technology falls short when people make mistakes. Human error played a role in 68% of 2024 data breaches, according to a Verizon report. Organizations can mitigate this risk through employee training, data minimization—meaning collecting only the information necessary for a task, then deleting it when it's no longer needed—and strict access controls. Policies, audits, and incident response plans can help organizations prepare for a possible data breach so they can stem the damage, see who is responsible and learn from the experience. It's also important to guard against insider threats and physical intrusion using physical safeguards such as locking down server rooms. Public policy holds organizations accountable Legal protections help hold organizations accountable in keeping data protected and giving people control over their data. The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation is one of the most comprehensive privacy laws in the world. It mandates strong data protection practices and gives people the right to access, correct, and delete their personal data. And the General Data Protection Regulation has teeth: In 2023, Meta was fined €1.2 billion (US$1.4 billion) when Facebook was found in violation. Despite years of discussion, the U.S. still has no comprehensive federal privacy law. Several proposals have been introduced in Congress, but none have made it across the finish line. In its place, a mix of state regulations and industry-specific rules—such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act for health data and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act for financial institutions —fill the gaps. Some states have passed their own privacy laws, but this patchwork leaves Americans with uneven protections and creates compliance headaches for businesses operating across jurisdictions. The tools, policies, and knowledge to protect personal data exist—but people's and institutions' use of them still falls short. Stronger encryption, more widespread use of multifactor authentication, better training, and clearer legal standards could prevent many breaches. It's clear that these tools work. What's needed now is the collective will—and a unified federal mandate—to put those protections in place.
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Female baboons with strong relationship to fathers found to live longer
If male baboons were subject to the same kind of cultural commentary as humans, the phrase 'deadbeat dads' might be called for, such is the primate's relatively limited involvement in raising their young. But a study suggests that even their little effort might go a long way, with female baboons who experience a stronger relationship with their fathers when young tending to live longer as adults. 'Among primates, humans are really unusual in how much dads contribute to raising offspring,' said Prof Elizabeth Archie, co-author of the research from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. 'Most primates' dads really don't contribute very much, but what the baboons are showing us is that maybe we've been under-appreciating dads in some species of primates.' In the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Archie and colleagues reported how they studied wild baboons in Kenya, focusing on 216 females fathered by 102 males, as confirmed by genetic data. The team studied the frequency of grooming interactions between fathers and daughters during the first four years of the females' lives, as well as recording the total number of days fathers and daughters lived in the same group over that period. They then tracked how long the daughters lived as adults. Archie said the team focused on female offspring because males often moved to other social groups as adults, making it difficult to track how long they live. The researchers found that female baboons who, during the first four years of their life, lived in the same group as their fathers for longer and spent more time grooming with them, lived two to four years longer as adults than those who experienced weaker relationships with their dads. If only one of the two occurred, an increase of about two to three years was found, Archie added. 'A typical lifespan for a female baboon, if she reaches adulthood, [is] 18 years,' she said, noting that females tended to have offspring every 18 months or so. 'So living two to three years longer would allow her time potentially to have another kid.' That, Archie added, might provide an incentive for fathers, given males were less able to fight others for mates as they get older. 'They can no longer compete for females, but what they can do is help their daughters,' said Archie. 'And if their daughters live a little bit longer, then the fathers will pass on more genes and have higher fitness because their daughters are living longer and having more kids.' The researchers found that strong relationships between young females and adult males in general, or with males who were not their fathers, was not associated with an increase in females' survival as adults. Archie said it was not yet clear why the strength of early-life relationships between daughters and fathers might affect females' survival as adults, but said a number of mechanisms could be at play. Among them, she suggested fathers were more likely to step in should their daughters get into fights, or by sheer intimidation create a 'zone of safety' around them so they were less likely to have food stolen or be injured or harassed – helping them grow into healthier adults. But, Archie noted, there was another possibility. 'Maybe it is just that healthy daughters have good relationships with their fathers, and they also live longer,' she said.
The Guardian
17-06-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Female baboons with strong relationship to fathers found to live longer
If male baboons were subject to the same kind of cultural commentary as humans, the phrase 'deadbeat dads' might be called for, such is the primate's relatively limited involvement in raising their young. But a study suggests that even their little effort might go a long way, with female baboons who experience a stronger relationship with their fathers when young tending to live longer as adults. 'Among primates, humans are really unusual in how much dads contribute to raising offspring,' said Prof Elizabeth Archie, co-author of the research from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. 'Most primates' dads really don't contribute very much, but what the baboons are showing us is that maybe we've been under-appreciating dads in some species of primates.' In the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Archie and colleagues reported how they studied wild baboons in Kenya, focusing on 216 females fathered by 102 males, as confirmed by genetic data. The team studied the frequency of grooming interactions between fathers and daughters during the first four years of the females' lives, as well as recording the total number of days fathers and daughters lived in the same group over that period. They then tracked how long the daughters lived as adults. Archie said the team focused on female offspring because males often moved to other social groups as adults, making it difficult to track how long they live. The researchers found that female baboons who, during the first four years of their life, lived in the same group as their fathers for longer and spent more time grooming with them, lived two to four years longer as adults than those who experienced weaker relationships with their dads. If only one of the two occurred, an increase of about two to three years was found, Archie added. 'A typical lifespan for a female baboon, if she reaches adulthood, [is] 18 years,' she said, noting that females tended to have offspring every 18 months or so. 'So living two to three years longer would allow her time potentially to have another kid.' That, Archie added, might provide an incentive for fathers, given males were less able to fight others for mates as they get older. 'They can no longer compete for females, but what they can do is help their daughters,' said Archie. 'And if their daughters live a little bit longer, then the fathers will pass on more genes and have higher fitness because their daughters are living longer and having more kids.' The researchers found that strong relationships between young females and adult males in general, or with males who were not their fathers, was not associated with an increase in females' survival as adults. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion Archie said it was not yet clear why the strength of early-life relationships between daughters and fathers might affect females' survival as adults, but said a number of mechanisms could be at play. Among them, she suggested fathers were more likely to step in should their daughters get into fights, or by sheer intimidation create a 'zone of safety' around them so they were less likely to have food stolen or be injured or harassed – helping them grow into healthier adults. But, Archie noted, there was another possibility. 'Maybe it is just that healthy daughters have good relationships with their fathers, and they also live longer,' she said.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Why studying spirituality is harder than you think
Sociologist Christian Smith studies American religion, but his research doesn't take him to many churches these days. Instead, he's been to a vampire ball in Chicago and a paranormal convention in Milwaukee. He's visited esoteric shops near his home in Michigan and spent a weekend at a pagan retreat in southern Indiana. Smith, a professor at the University of Notre Dame, is on a mission to understand what he calls the culture of re-enchantment, a loosely connected web of conventions, shops, content creators and community groups that promote some form of spirituality, but not religion. Smith believes studying this spiritual landscape is key to offering a fuller explanation for organized religion's recent decline and grasping where the country is headed. And he's not alone. Recent studies showing that young people are just as spiritual as older adults despite being less religious have prompted many scholars to give spirituality a deeper look. Spirituality 'is not like a denomination. It's a language people use to describe themselves and the practices of others. It includes a lot of internal ambiguity and diversity.' Christian Smith But these scholars are staring down a big challenge: Spirituality is a broad concept that's not easily quantified. To find the answers they're seeking, researchers will have to come up with new questions — and maybe attend a few vampire balls. 'If we take our old frameworks, our old lenses and impose them on re-enchanted culture, it will reveal some things but blind us to a whole lot of other things. We need a new toolkit to properly understand,' Smith said. Smith's current work on re-enchantment grew out of his recently released book on organized religion. Going into that book project, he knew spirituality would be part of the story, since most people of faith hold both spiritual and religious beliefs. But he didn't plan on stumbling onto so many spiritual practices that are separate from religion, let alone concluding that spirituality, when broadly defined, is a significant cultural force on its own. 'I had to change my mind and understanding of what it was and what was going on,' he said. In the past, Smith didn't put much stock into someone calling themself a spiritual person. He figured they thought it sounded good or preferred saying spiritual instead of religious. Now, he sees the label as an entry point into a conversation about finding meaning in spiritual activities like energy healing or manifesting, which are often associated with the 1960s but are newly relevant today. 'For some people, the term 'spiritual' is pretty superficial. It doesn't mean much at all. But not for everybody,' Smith said. 'For some, it's the source of relationships and communities.' Penny Edgell, a sociologist at the University of Minnesota, made a similar point during a Feb. 19 press briefing on Pew Research Center's latest Religious Landscape Study. After noting that nearly 9 in 10 U.S. adults believe people have a soul or spirit in addition to a physical body, Edgell criticized those who insist that high rates of spirituality 'don't mean anything.' 'I have colleagues who say that without a commitment to a religious institution, spiritual commitments will decline. I think that's the wrong take,' she said. 'There are plenty of places now where spiritual practices are being maintained outside of religious institutions, and that should be studied on its own terms.' As Edgell predicted during the press briefing, Pew's Religious Landscape Study sparked debates over spirituality's role in American life. The study showed that support for spiritual concepts has remained high and even grown amid a broad-based decline in religious engagement. Today, 83% of U.S. adults believe in God or a universal spirit, and 79% say there's something spiritual beyond the natural world, Pew found. A smaller share of Americans — 64% — say religion is 'somewhat' or 'very' important in their lives, and just 33% go to church at least monthly. Half of U.S. adults say they're both spiritual and religious, but an additional 21% say they're only spiritual. (By comparison, just 5% of U.S. adults describe themselves as religious but not spiritual.) Those figures and others from Pew's report led some religion experts to suggest that churches should start pitching themselves as spiritual centers in addition to religious institutions to draw in spiritual seekers. But others essentially scoffed at the spirituality data, dismissing the idea that spiritual practices can be a source of meaning outside of religion, as Smith once did. A key issue for the skeptics, according to Smith, was that Pew's survey involved general, rather than specific, questions. If it's not controversial to say you believe in souls or a spiritual world, then how much do you actually learn from people saying yes? Smith agrees that more specific questions are needed, but he sympathizes with Pew and other research firms. Spirituality has multiple meanings and expressions — and they don't all overlap. 'It's not like a denomination. It's a language people use to describe themselves and the practices of others. It includes a lot of internal ambiguity and diversity,' he said. Moving forward, researchers will have to experiment with more specific questions about spirituality, including about practices (Do you collect crystals? Do you read tarot cards?) and social groups (Do you belong to a spiritual club?). They'll continue exploring what it means to be spiritual but not religious and what types of spiritual institutions are comparable to more familiar religious ones. 'We've become really good at measuring traditional religion, but spirituality is relatively new. We have to figure out what it means and what kinds of questions to ask. How people out in the world think about it,' Smith said. Just this week, Pew released a new report on spirituality around the world, sharing what researchers learned when they took questions on spiritual beliefs and practices from past projects in the U.S. and Asia and fielded them in other regions for the first time. 'Finding the right questions to ask was a complicated and lengthy process, and it took a lot of care,' said Jonathan Evans, a senior researcher at Pew and the lead author of the new report. 'We wanted to give people a chance to say what they do and what they believe.' With questions about life after death, animal spirits, the spiritual energy of nature and other topics, Pew showed that, at least for some, embracing spiritual concepts has little or nothing to do with religion. 'While there is no clear and widely accepted dividing line between religion and spirituality, these questions show that even in countries where comparatively few people view religion as very important, many do hold beliefs in spirits and/or life after death,' researchers wrote. Like the Religious Landscape Study, the new survey also found that the age gap in religious engagement doesn't show up with spirituality-focused questions. 'Previous research has shown pretty consistently that older adults tend to be more religious than younger adults. ... But when we get to newer questions, the youngest adults are sometimes as likely and in a few cases more likely than older adults' to agree with spiritual claims, Evans said. Evans confirmed that his team hopes to field the same questions about spirituality and religion in a few years in order to start identifying trend lines. 'The future is fun to think about,' he said.
