The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) has allocated $1.61 million in seed grants to nine public universities in Virginia to address cybersecurity challenges related to artificial intelligence (AI).

This initiative is part of a broader effort supported by the state, involving over 40 Virginia universities that focus on workforce development, innovation, and research in cybersecurity.

Luiz DaSilva, the executive director of CCI, emphasized that these funded projects are designed to enhance security and privacy while tackling new vulnerabilities that arise from the adoption of AI.

The overarching goal of CCI's funding is to establish Virginia as a global leader in cybersecurity research and innovation.

The funded projects encompass a range of topics, including an AI-powered cyber defense system utilizing transformer models, explainable reinforcement learning, adaptive intrusion detection, deepfake detection, and improving security for large language models.

Researchers are also leveraging generative AI to enhance security in iris biometrics and to analyze vulnerabilities with large language models (LLMs).

While AI is frequently employed to detect malicious activities such as credit card fraud and cyber attacks, it is also under threat from sophisticated attacks like data poisoning and ransomware.

In addition, privacy-preserving techniques are being investigated for applications in public health surveillance and secure monitoring systems, including intelligent wireless sensor systems for cattle on farms.

Participating institutions in this initiative include Christopher Newport University, George Mason University, Old Dominion University, University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Military Institute, Virginia State University, Virginia Tech, and William & Mary.

Specific projects funded by CCI include a multitask LLM-based vulnerability detector, showcasing the diverse approaches being taken to enhance cybersecurity.