Ethan Cecchetti’s office in the newly opened Morgridge Hall features plenty of whiteboards, bursting with complex equations for his research, scrawled in different colors like a mathematical rainbow.
There’s also a wall that features different types of tea, and a menu describing them for his guests to peruse.
While his decor is certainty interesting, it’s his research that really grabs attention. Cecchetti studies how to use programming languages and applied cryptographic techniques to enhance cybersecurity and develop tools that simplify the creation and analysis of safer computer systems.
“Programming languages are the tools that we use to actually build computer systems and build software,” he says. “It makes sense to use programming languages and cryptography to enhance the security of those same systems.”
Cryptography is a key tool to keep data secure. It secures information by using codes and mathematical algorithms to transform data into an unreadable format, ensuring that it’s difficult to steal and decipher. The process is called encryption.
Encryption ensures that the user’s data remains confidential when communicating with a server. This includes things like credit card information, medical records, passwords, addresses and more.
“Almost every website you go to is going to be an HTTPS website,” Cecchetti explains. “As long as it’s HTTPS, all the communication going back and forth between your laptop and the servers on the other end is going to be encrypted. Nobody else can modify it. Somebody who’s sitting in the middle of the network might be able to tell where it’s going and where it’s coming from, but that’s all.”
This is the primary function of cryptography. Unfortunately, building computer systems that use it correctly is hard and requires a lot of expertise, but it doesn’t help security much if it’s used wrong. Right now, the tools for building those systems don’t help much, which is where Cecchetti’s research comes in.
“I’m trying to find better ways to use the programming languages,” he says. “These tools often are designed to talk about how different pieces of your software interface with each other and how they connect together. That makes them a great place to build ways to help software developers use cryptography more effectively.”
His research is designed for both the developers and users of a system. The developers can use Cecchetti’s software to make a more secure network, and the users no longer have to worry about malicious behavior within the network that can steal their data. Cryptography is how data stays secure.
“Cryptography is really a form of mathematics, in a sense,” he says.
Cecchetti decided to attend graduate school after a stint as a software engineer at TripAdvisor because he realized he missed doing math. Wanting to do something he truly cared about, he entered the field of cybersecurity research at Cornell University, where he earned his master’s and PhD.
His research is an example of his love for math. Taking his desire to work more with mathematics and coupling that with his interest in cybersecurity, it only seems natural that the two would merge into an interesting research topic.
“I’m really trying to teach people how to think about computer security and the various different aspects of a system,” he says. “What the security considerations are and why you would think through things this way. The best way to learn something is to teach it.”
Cecchetti’s coursework is often complex. To avoid burnout and keep himself focused, he turns to his hobbies.
“If I need a half-hour brain break, I’ll go outside for a walk,” he says. “If I need a two-minute brain break, I’ll pick up the juggling balls. It’s a great way to blow off steam.”
Especially during grad school, when he was feeling like his brain was stuck, he would rely on juggling as a way to take a break and refocus.
Beyond his integral research, Cecchetti spends his free time playing ultimate frisbee and cycling around Madison and the Driftless Region of Wisconsin, taking in the sights and sounds. It’s a great way to relax after changing the cybersecurity game.
Cecchetti believes the future is bright for his computer sciences students.
“Three to five years down the line, when hopefully they’re working in some software job where this stuff is relevant, they’re not going to remember the exact details of some little protocol, but they might remember enough about what it’s supposed to do and how it works.”