HAIC Talk with Markus Miettinen: The Cornucopia of security research is stuffed with AI
2026-02-23 16:00 - 17:30 (Europe/Helsinki) | Dipoli, Lumituuli, Otakaari 24, Espoo, 02150, Finland
Lecture description: The increasing public interest towards AI-based applications, especially LLM chatbots, has caused an onslaught of AI-based functionalities in various devices and systems. Many vendors hope to reap benefits from AI algorithms’ capabilities to ingest and reproduce enormous amounts of information and their ability to quickly process data based on patterns taught to them during model training. The promise of potential increased performance and the ability to provide entirely novel user experiences has caused many system designers and device vendors to wholeheartedly adopt AI as an essential component in their system and solution designs. However, while offering potential benefits, the introduction of this new technology to systems also introduces potential new attack surfaces and security vulnerabilities that have been mostly overlooked by system vendors so far. Researchers and practitioners are only beginning to study and understand what it really means from a security point of view to have data-driven AI-based reasoning and decision making as an integral part of system designs.
In this talk I will review challenges that arise with regard to security through the introduction of AI algorithms in real-world systems. I will sketch an outline for a research roadmap for addressing and mitigating security threats against AI components and discuss what it would take to develop system designs that are more resilient against various types of AI misuse.
About the speaker: Dr.-Ing. Markus Miettinen obtained his M.Sc. in computer science in 2002 from the University of Helsinki, after which he pursued a career in industrial research at the Nokia Research Center in Helsinki, Finland and Lausanne, Switzerland. In 2012, he joined the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT) in Darmstadt, Germany and in 2013 he joined the System Security Lab of the Department of Computer Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt from where he obtained his doctorate in 2018. From 2023 to 2025 he was Professor of IT Security at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences. Since October 2025 he has been full professor of cybersecurity at the University of Jyväskylä. He is also a member of the leadership team of the Finnish Center of Expertise in Cybersecurity FICEC.
His research interests are centered around IoT security, the use of data analysis and AI in security applications, as well as security of AI algorithms, in particular the security implications of the increasingly ubiquitous deployment of AI in various systems. He has a big interest in fostering the transfer of research results to real-world applications, and is inventor or co-inventor in 20 granted international patents in eleven patent families.
Time: 23.2.2026 at 16:00 – 17:30 (coffee and buns served from 15:30). The lecture will be approximately 60 minutes, after which there will be time for questions.
Venue: Lumituuli auditorium, Dipoli, Aalto University (Otakaari 24, Espoo).
Registration: The event is open to all and free of charge, but we ask you to register for the event as it will help us to estimate the number of coffee ordered, thank you!
