Download - When Algorithms Are Our Co-Pilots
#SIRACon14
When Algorithms Are Our Co-Pilots
Allison MillerPresident, SIRA
#SIRACon14 @selenakyle
Outline
❖ What are algorithms?
❖ OMG, I LOVE Algorithms!
❖ Algorithms as the foundation of information risk control systems
❖ Algorithms VS (Adversity + Adversaries)
❖ Control vs Complexity
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#TBT
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Namshub
❖Tie Your Shoes
❖Common core
❖$15.51
1,000,000,000,000
-1
Are you a good algorithm or a bad algorithm?
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ed
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Namshub
❖Tie Your Shoes
❖Common core❖$15.51
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#InQuantsWeTrust
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w(e) <3 Math❖ Gauss: What’s Normal Anyway
❖ Bernoulli: Making Heads or Tails of things
❖ Plenty of Poisson in the Sea
❖ Euler: Graph theory, topology
❖ All about that Bayes
❖ Groves of Decision Trees, Nets of Neurons, Totally Random Forests
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#WWAD?
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What Algorithms Do
❖Simplify❖Match❖Price❖Automate❖Predict❖Compete
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#FTW
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The Player is the Game
❖ Tic Tac Toe❖ Chess❖ Trivia❖ Poker❖ Tit for Tat
Kasparov vs X3D Fritz
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Discussing Games
Mechanics of decision trees
UP
DOWN
CIRCLE
RED
BLUE
MARIO
LUIGI
KIRBY
GIZMO
10, 3
2, 10
10
2, 5
-3, 3A
B
B
A
A
A
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#WTF(What, Thou Failest?)
* Es tu, Bot — eh?
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Algorithms Gone Wild
❖Bidding/auctions❖Targeting❖Too Many Likes
Why?
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Speaking of $$$
❖Black Scholes❖Automation of trading
❖HFT: Faster than the speed of light
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#YMMV
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Managing DecisionsRisk Management = Decision Management Algorithms are useful for “outsourcing” decisions to our
systems
Systems enforce risk strategies
Defenders and operators design control systems that make decisions Where risks/issues manifest in observable behavior
They can make moves/counter-moves depending on the context and understanding of an actor’s identity or intent
Where system or individual costs/payoffs depend on the outcome of an actor’s actions
Decision strategies can be optimized

UP
DOWN
CIRCLE
RED
BLUE
MARIO
LUIGI
KIRBY
GIZMO
10, 3
2, 10
2, 5
-3, 3A
B
B
A
A
A
Payoffs!
Optimization!
% of populationC
ost
Number of Defects Produced
Cost of Control
Cost of Defects
CV
Total CostCV
Operations
Risk/Loss
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Algorithms Rule
❖Defenses❖DevOps❖Devices
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Operating a Learning System
Disposition&
Time
EmailCC#ItemsTotal
Submit
Maybe
No!
Yes!! SuOutcomeSuAttempt
Black & Whitelists
Machine Learning
Velocity & Spend caps
Geo & IP Logic
Linking
Data
• Reporting• Metrics• Analysis• Modeling
GoodBadIndeterminate
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The Better Mousetrap
Automates defensive action x-platform
- Fast
- Accurate
- Cheap
In Real TimeIn Time to Minimize
LossReasonable False PositivesAs good as a human specialist
Reduces Reduction > Cost CreatedCheaper than Manual
intervention
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TheJoyof… #If/Then
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The first rule of any technology
used in a business is that automation
applied to an efficient operation
will magnify the efficiency.
The second is that automation
applied to an inefficient
operation will magnify the inefficiency.–Bill Gates
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Managing Social Systems
“…all policy systems…pose incentives that are reacted to by groups of agents acting in their own interest, and often those reactions are unexpected
and act counter to the policy’s intentions…”
— Brian Arthur, All Systems will be Gamed: Exploitive Behavior in Economic and Social Systems
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Send in the Bots
❖ Convenience vs dependence
❖ Transparency vs obfuscation
❖ Simplicity vs complexity
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#TheInterdependenceOf(AllThe)Things
#SIRACon14 @selenakyleAsimov’s 3 Laws of Robotics
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
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SIRAtonin 3 Bot Guidelines
1.Bots are thoughtless but purposeful
2.Bots compete but will also collude
3.The behavior of a network of bots is more complex than the behavior of a single bot
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The Complexity Dimension
Embedded system controls are part of the system
Instrument your instrumentation
Learning systems are hungry
Intelligent agents are dumb
Fatal feedback is fatal
Risk hides in complexity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1t4M2XnIhI#action=share
Photo: Michael Rubenstein/Harvard University
Allison Miller
@selenakyle