Law Professor's Math Fights Cyber Attacks and Terrorists

WASHINGTON - EntSun -- Most law professors don't help fight terrorists or cyber attacks.

But a paper just highlighted at an international computer conference is just the most recent reminder that a mathematical tool, invented by a law professor who has been called "one of the oldest living hackers," has proven enormously useful in helping to fight cyber attacks.

Its inventor, public interest law professor John Banzhaf, was one of the first to warn about how easy it was for Russia, and perhaps other countries as well, to use simple and readily available cyber software to undermine elections in the U.S.

A paper just featured at the 2026 16th International Conference on Advanced Computer Information Technologies (ACIT). entitled "Modern Approaches to Detecting Cyberattacks," (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/1...) explains how using the Random Forest feature with the Banzhaf Power Index can help fight cyber threats including DDoS, Man-in-the-Middle, ARP spoofing, brute force, malware, and U2R.

This follows an earlier scientific publication, entitled Risk Analysis Sampling Methods in Terrorist Networks Based on the Banzhaf Value (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370440597_Risk_analysis_sampling_methods_in_terrorist_networks_based_on_the_Banzhaf_value), which outlined how "the Banzhaf and the Banzhaf–Owen values [serve] as novel measures of risk analysis of a terrorist attack, determining the most dangerous terrorists in a network."

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On a similar note, Rankings in the Zerkani Network by a Game Theoretical Approach (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358655742_Rankings_in_the_Zerkani_network_by_a_game_theoretical_approach) illustrates how a "new approach [using the Banzhaf value] let integrate the complete topology . . .   we rank the members of the Zerkani network, responsible for the attacks in Paris (2015) and Brussels (2016). "

Another article, entitled Defeating Terrorist Networks with Game Theory (https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Defeating...), cited the Banzhaf Index in explaining why "an important thread of current research is to apply techniques from the cooperative game theory to identify the key members of the organization using information about the terrorist network's topology."

Finally, Professor Banzhaf was also one of the first to not only warn about the dangers of Russian interference in U.S. elections, but to also explain exactly how hackers could do it with readily available software.

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Prof. John Banzhaf: Hacker With Off-the-Shelf Malware Can Steal More Votes Than Any Corrupt Politician (https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2016/08/30/prof...)

Professor Banzhaf explains that he invented the "Banzhaf Index" to persuade New York's highest court to declare weighted voting schemes unconstitutiona (he was successful), and to help persuade Congress to replace the Electoral College because the current system give far more voting power to residents of the most populous states (he was almost successful).

But, as someone who may be one of the oldest living hackers, he's happy that his invention has proven useful in so many different ways, including using areas of modern mathematics such as game theory to protect Americans from cyber attacks and terrorists.

http://banzhaf.net/   jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com   @profbanzhaf