News

Giovanni Vigna Featured in National Academies’ Report Release Webinar on AI and Cybersecurity

Washington, D.C. — Giovanni Vigna, Professor of Computer Science at UC Santa Barbara and Director of the NSF AI Institute for Agent-Based Cyber Threat Intelligence and Operation (ACTION), joined leading national security and artificial intelligence expert for a public webinar hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The event marked the official release of the landmark publication, "Implications of AI for Cybersecurity: A Rapid Expert Consultation."

ACTION's Third Annual Review and Knowledge Expo

The ACTION AI Institute hosted its third annual review and Knowledge Expo on June 25–26, 2026, at UC Santa Barbara's Henley Hall.

Representatives from all twelve ACTION campuses participated in the event and showcased the Institute's achievements over the past twelve months. Also in attendance were representatives from each of ACTION's stakeholder organizations: the U.S. National Science Foundation; the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Division; and IBM. 

ACTION at the UC AI Steering Committee

Giovanni Vigna represented ACTION at the inaugural meeting of the University of California's AI Steering Committee, held on June 8th. The gathering brought together leaders from across UC's campuses, health system, and national laboratories for a full day of conversation about how our institution should approach artificial intelligence.

Across two breakout groups, several themes emerged with strong consensus:

Webinar: Implications of AI for Cybersecurity

On June 24, the National Academies will release Implications of Recent Advancements in Artificial Intelligence for Cybersecurity, a rapid expert consultation that examines how recent advances in generative AI and agentic

CTF Training Camps at Norfolk State University

Once again, the Cybersecurity Complex at Norfolk State University will run summer training camps utilizing a curriculum in capture the flag. Camps will run from July 20 - July 24 with two separate tracks. One track will cater to high school students and instructors. The other will prioritize training and workforce development for veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces. 

Elisa Bertino named as ACM President

Dr. Elisa Bertino was elected to a two-year term as president of the Association for Computing Machinery beginning July 1, 2026. 

Dr. Bertino has been a leading ACTION faculty researcher since the institute's inception in 2023. Since 2024 she has been the lead for our research in the area of intelligent agents for response and recovery. 

SAC visit to UC Santa Barbara

Saastha Vasan hosted Chase Jiang and Elena Long for a visit to UC Santa Barbara as part of the ACTION Student Advisory Council student exchange. While here, Chase, who is from the University of Chicago, and Elena, from the University of Virginia, had a chance to learn about the wealth of research activities underway in UCSB's SecLab. 

We hope to hold similar opportunities for cross-pollination at all of our ACTION campuses in 2026-2027. 

University of Washington releases "JobBench: Aligning Agent Work with Human Desire"

ACTION researchers at the University of Washington have released a new evaluation standard for the real-world utility of AI agents. JobBench, now live at job-bench.github.io, applies a human lens to the issue of AI in the workplace. Rather than asking what work AI agents can absorb, the benchmark considers what tasks human professionals want AI to absorb, and then measures AI models' ability to do the work.