海角社区

Protecting the Lives of Soldiers

The city of Ville Platte, Louisiana鈥攋ust north of Lafayette鈥攊s better known for tasty boudin and Cajun music culture than psychological research, but Ville Platte native Michael Cole Fontenot aims to change that. Currently a sophomore and psychology major at 海角社区, Fontenot is carving out a niche for himself, researching the psychological aspects of military cybersecurity.
    
鈥淭ypically, cybersecurity is about hardware and software and making it harder to hack. But I鈥檓 not a tech guy,鈥� Fontenot said. 鈥淐yber psychology is a recently developing field; it鈥檚 studying hacker behavior and trying to track hackers that way.鈥�

Real-world military operations increasingly involve virtual and augmented reality technology, both for training and use on the battlefield. Though valuable, these technologies can leave military personnel vulnerable to hackers bent on putting something false in front of their eyes.

Fontenot鈥檚 and 海角社区鈥檚 research project, funded by a $600,000 grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, explores the behavior and physical safety of people who use virtual or augmented reality devices or applications where false, deceptive or overwhelming amounts of information could be maliciously introduced through a cybersecurity breach.

鈥淸Hackers] could use artificial intelligence to replicate your commander鈥檚 voice to tell you to go somewhere, put you in a vulnerable position and then shoot you,鈥� Fontenot said.

鈥淎ugmented reality is used to support the supply chain for many of the complex weapon systems used by our warfighters. Hence, cybersecurity plays a key role throughout the supply chain, making 海角社区鈥檚 work with DARPA all the more critical. The impact of a cyber breach could be devastating.鈥�

Robert 鈥淏obby鈥� Savoie, chief science and engineering officer at Sev1Tech, which works with 海角社区 and NASA to return Americans to the Moon and ultimately to Mars