James Bret Michael

Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

Professor of Computer Science and Electrical & Computer Engineering

Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California U.S.A. (https://nps.edu/)

Email: bmichael@nps.edu

See my official biographical sketch at https://nps.edu/vice-provost-for-academic-affairs.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

IEEE Life Fellow

Acting Editor-in-Chief, Computer (Electronic ISSN: 1558-0814)

Member, IEEE Computer Society and IEEE Reliability Society

RECENT COURSES TAUGHT

· EC4765, Cyber Warfare (fall 2024)

· EC3740, Reverse Engineering in Electronic Systems (spring 2025)

· EC3760, Information Operations Systems (spring 2026)

PATENTS

· D. Drusinsky and J. B. Michael, Methods and systems for multiagent pathfinding. U.S. Patent no. 11,882,023 B2, 23 Jan. 2024, https://patents.google.com/patent/US20230179512A1/en.

· D. Drusinsky, M. Litton, and J. B. Michael, 2023. Method Of Machine-Learned Verification And Advance Notice Oracles For Autonomous Systems. U.S. patent application no. 18/809,958, pending, https://patents.google.com/patent/US20250083702.

SELECTED RECENT PRESENTATIONS

· “AI in the DoD,” NPS Harnessing Artificial Intelligence Series (Dec. 1, 2025). Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9dI68OAnzk.

· “Episode 7: The Impact of AI on Cybersecurity Released,” Defense Threat Reduction Agency Podcast series (7 June 2023). Available at https://www.dtra.mil/News-Media/DTRA-Podcast/DTRA-Podcast-Episode-7/.

SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Over 300 publications, including books, chapters, journal articles, conference papers, and technical reports.

· D. Drusinsky and J. B. Michael, “Protecting AI from training data contamination,” Computer, vol. 59, no. 4, pp. 145-155, 2026.

· J. B. Michael, “Firmware, dependability, and trust,” Computer, vol. 59, no. 3, pp. 131-138, 2026.

· J. Weiss, J. B. Michael, and M. T. Swearingen, “Physics-based cyberattacks against electric power grids and alternating current equipment,” Computer, vol. 58, no. 10, pp. 157-161, 2025.

· D. Drusinsky and J. B. Michael, “Generative AI regulation is an undecidable problem,” Computer, vol. 58, no. 10, pp. 122-130, 2025.

· J. Weiss and J. B. Michael, “Bridging the gap between engineering and cybersecurity to better protect critical infrastructures,” Computer, vol. 58, no. 7, pp. 157-160, 2025.

· A. Grünert, J. B. Michael, R. Oppliger, and R. Rytz, “On the measurability and testability of IT security,” Computer, vol. 58, no. 3, pp. 120-126, 2025.

· M. L. Litton, D. Drusinsky, and J. B. Michael, “Discovering decision manifolds to assure trusted autonomous systems,” IEEE Syst. J., vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 413-424, 2025.

· M. L. Litton, D. Drusinsky, L. Bridget, and J. B. Michael, “Machine learned correctness properties, runtime verification, and advance-warning oracles for autonomous systems,” Computer, vol. 57, no. 10, pp. 118-130, 2024.

· A. Grünert, J. B. Michael, R. Oppliger, and R. Rytz, “Why probabilities cannot be used in cyber risk management,” Computer, vol. 57, no. 10, pp. 86-89, 2024.

· M. L. Litton, D. Drusinsky, J. B. Michael, “Reliable autonomous vehicles: How do we get there?” IEEE Rel. Mag., vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 41-50, 2024.

• M. T. Swearingen, J. B Michael, J. Weiss, and R. Radvanovsky, “Resilient without Zero Trust,” Computer, vol. 57, no. 1, pp. 120-122, 2024.
• D. L. Litton, D. Drusinsky, and J. B. Michael, “Assuring reliability of autonomous commercial drones in the national airspace,” in Proc. 70th Annual Reliability & Maintainability Symposium, Albuquerque, N.M., 6 pp., Jan. 2024.
• J. Weiss, J. B. Michael, and M. T. Swearingen, “There is no chilling when your control system cybersecurity is unfulfilling,” Computer, vol. 56, no. 12, pp. 120-124, 2023.
• D. Drusinsky, M. Litton, and J. B. Michael, “Machine-learned verification and advance notice oracles for autonomous systems,” Computer, vol. 56, no. 7, 121-130, 2023.
• T. C. Wingfield and J. B. Michael, “Waterfall: Cascading effects of a strategic cyber campaign,” Computer, vol. 56, no. 4, pp. 143-148, 2023.
• Q. Lu, L. Zhu, J. Whittle, and J. B. Michael, “Software engineering for responsible AI,” Computer, vol. 56, no. 4, pp. 13-16, 2023.
• J. Michael, D. Drusinsky, and M. Litton, Update on machine-learned correctness properties, Tech. report NPS-CS-23-001, Department of Computer Science, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif., Jan. 2023.
• D. Drusinsky, J. B. Michael, M. Litton, “Machine-learned specifications for the verification and validation of autonomous cyberphysical systems,” in Proc. 33rd IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering, Charlotte, N.C., pp. 333-341, Nov. 2022.
• J. Weiss, M. Hood, N. Miller, C. Potorieko, and J. B. Michael, “Using machine learning to work around the operational and cybersecurity limitations of legacy process sensors,” Computer, vol. 55, no. 11, pp. 106-111, 2022.
• J. B. Michael, “Taking a measured approach to investing in information infrastructure for attaining leading-edge trustworthy artificial intelligence,” IEEE Security & Privacy, vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 4-6, 2022.
• J. B. Michael, “Understanding conversational artificial intelligence,” Computer, vol. 55, no. 9, pp. 115-119, 2022.
• J. B. Michael, G. C. Dinolt, F. B. Cohen, D. Wijesekera, “Can you trust in Zero Trust,” Computer, vol. 55, no. 8, pp. 103-105, 2022.
• J. B. Michael, “Placing trust in automated software development processes,” Computer, vol. 55, no. 7, pp. 78-81, 2022.
• J. B. Michael and M. Orescanin, “Developing and deploying artificial intelligence systems,” Computer, vol. 55, no. 6, pp. 15-17, 2022.
• D. Drusinsky, M. Litton, and J. B. Michael, “Lightweight verification and validation of cyberphysical systems using machine-learned correctness properties,” Computer, vol 55, no. 2, pp. 102-108, 2022.
• J. B. Michael, “Trusting human-machine teaming,” Computer, vol. 54, no. 11, pp. 104-107, 2021.
• J. B. Michael and T. C. Wingfield, “Defensive AI: The future is yesterday,” Computer, vol. 54, no. 9, pp. 90-96, 2021.
• J. B. Michael, D. Drusinsky, and D. Wijesekera, “Formal verification of cyber-physical systems,” Computer, vol. 54, no. 9, pp. 15-24, 2021.
• J. B. Michael, D. Drusinsky, and D. Wijesekera, “Formal methods in cyber-physical system,” Computer, vol. 54, no. 9, pp. 25-29, 2021.
• T. Carter, J. B. Michael, J. A. Kroll, “Lessons learned from applying the NIST Privacy Framework,” IT Professional, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 9-13, 2021.
• M. J. Lanoue, J. B. Michael, and C. A. Bollmann, “Spoofed networks: Exploitation of GNSS security vulnerability in 4G and 5G mobile networks,” Int. Symp. on Performance Evaluation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems Conf., Fairfax, Va., pp. 1-8, July 2021.
• D. Drusinsky and J. B. Michael, “Multiagent pathfinding under rigid, optimization, and uncertainty constraints,” Computer, vol 54, no. 7, pp. 111-118, 2021.
• J. Viega and J. B. Michael, “Struggling with supply-chain security,” Computer, vol. 54, no. 7, pp. 98-104, 2021.
• J. B. Michael, “Security and privacy for edge artificial intelligence,” IEEE Security & Privacy, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 4-7, 2021.
• J. A. Kroll, J. B. Michael, and D. B. Thaw, “Enhancing cybersecurity via artificial intelligence: Risks, rewards, and frameworks,” Computer, vol 54, no. 6, pp. 64-71, 2021.
• J. F. DeFranco, C. S. Eagle, J. B. Michael, J. Viega, and J. M. Voas, “Hackathons 101,” Computer, vol. 54, no. 5, pp. 65-69, 2021.
• P. Denning, D. Drusinsky, and J. B. Michael, “Military intelligent systems pose strategic dilemmas,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Apr. 2021.
• M. Lanoue, C. A. Bollmann, J. B. Michael, J. D. Roth, and D. Wijesekera, “An attack vector taxonomy for mobile telephony security vulnerabilities,” Computer, vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 76-84, 2021.
• S. Peisert, B. Schneier, H. Okhravi, F. Massacci, T. Benzel, C. Landwehr, M. Mannan, J. Mirkovic, A. Prakash, and J. B. Michael, “Perspectives on the SolarWinds incident,” IEEE Security & Privacy, vol.19, no.2, pp. 7-13, 2021.
• R. D. Riehle and J. B. Michael, “Improving the trustworthiness of software through rigorous data type design,” Computer, vol 54, no. 1, pp. 89-95, 2021.
• N. Thiem, M. Orescanin, and J. B. Michael, “Reducing artifacts in GAN audio synthesis,” in Proc. 19^th Int. Conf. on Machine Learning and Applications, Miami, Fla., pp. 1268-1275, Dec. 2020.
• J. B. Michael and J. Voas, “Algorithms, algorithms, algorithms,” Computer, vol. 53, no. 11, pp. 13-15, 2020.
• J. B. Michael, R. Kuhn, and J. Voas, “Security or privacy: Can you have both? Computer, vol. 53, no. 9, pp. 20-30, 2020.
• J. B. Michael, R. Kuhn, and J. Voas, “Cyberthreats in 2025,” Computer, vol. 53, no. 6, pp. 16-27, 2020.
• J. B. Michael, “Practical aspects of employing antireverse engineering.” IT Professional, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 11-13, 2020.

• J. B. Michael, G. W. Dinolt, and D. Drusinsky, “Open questions in formal methods,” Computer, vol. 53, no. 5, pp. 81-84, 2020.
• D. Drusinsky and J. B. Michael, “Obtaining trust in executable derivatives using crowdsourced critiques with blind signatures,” Computer, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 51-56, 2020.
• L. E. Peitso and J. B. Michael, “The promise of interactive shared augmented reality,” Computer, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 45-52, 2020.
• J. B. Michael, “Trustworthiness of autonomous machines in armed conflict,” IEEE Security & Privacy, vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 4-6, 2019.
• J. B. Michael, “Assessing the trustworthiness of electronic systems,” Computer, vol. 52, no. 11, pp. 80-83, 2019.
• Tallinn Manual 2.0 on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Operations, M. N. Schmitt, gen. ed., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., 2^nd ed. 2017.

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Last updated on 11 June 2026