Jedidiah Crandall

Jedidiah Crandall comes from a computer science background and arrives at Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering with a joint appointment at ASU’s Biodesign Institute.

Crandall’s research focuses on computer networking and cybersecurity. His work measures censorship, surveillance and other threats to internet freedom in order to build a picture of how the internet is evolving over time.

“One particular interest is how network protocols and their implementations can adapt to the novel threats faced by at-risk populations, such as journalists and activists, where the network itself is malicious,” says Crandall.

Cybersecurity is something that maintains Crandall’s interest because he says he has discovered that several users face unique security and privacy challenges as the network infrastructure itself is working against them.

As a self-proclaimed tinkerer, Crandall likes to find out not only how systems work, but how they can be broken or made to work in unintended ways. His students will have the opportunity to explore the many ways networks can be examined.

“I teach systems and cybersecurity classes that way because it makes it fun, and tinkering is a skill you can take with you anywhere,” he says. “If you take a class from me expect big projects, but they’ll be fun. You’ll get to tinker around with your own miniature internet or carry out cyberattacks against your classmates.”

Crandall says he chose to come to ASU because of the community of like-minded people.

“There are a lot of kindred spirits here in terms of a passion for research in general and also specifically in my research area of cybersecurity.”