Cyber Policy Competition '25
The CSAW Cyber Policy Competition welcomes all students who have a passion for exploring the field of cyber policy. We encourage you to participate and share your insights with our judges. This is a fantastic opportunity to showcase skills and understanding.
The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence across the digital ecosystem has reshaped how software and systems are developed. Practices such as "vibe coding", using AI code-generation tools without deep technical expertise, are spreading quickly. At the same time, adversaries are experimenting with data poisoning, inserting malicious or falsified information into training pipelines to compromise AI models. These dynamics accelerate innovation but also create unprecedented cybersecurity risks: insecure code proliferates, poisoned datasets enable hidden backdoors, and attackers may gain systemic advantage as AI shifts the offense-defense balance.
Compounding the challenge, leading experts suggest that AI systems may never be fully secure. If this is true, policymakers, industry leaders, and researchers must grapple with how to manage residual risks, foster resilience, and ensure accountability. Without clear policies, responsibility for failures often falls to end-users, an unsustainable arrangement in a hyperconnected world.
The imperative today is to design governance frameworks that acknowledge AI's dual nature: a powerful enabler of cybersecurity, but also a vector for new vulnerabilities. The CSAW 2025 Cyber Policy Competition focuses on addressing these concerns, working toward policies that balance innovation with accountability, liability, and resilience in the age of AI.
Key areas to research include:
1. AI Security and Liability - Market Dynamics, Duty of Care, Liability Shift
2. Global Impact and Best Practices - Global Standards, Cross-Border Risks, Open-Source AI in the Global Arena
Competitors should structure their proposed policy solutions within one of the following key focus areas:
- Focus Area 1: AI Security and Liability
- How can markets be restructured to prioritize secure AI development without stifling innovation?
- What constitutes a "reasonable precaution" when developing or deploying AI systems, and how can it be measured?
- How can liability rules account for the role of AI code generation, dataset curation, and poisoned training inputs?
- Focus Area 2: Global Impact and Best Practices
- How are different countries approaching AI system liability and assurance, and what can be learned from them?
- Is a global standard for AI system resilience feasible, and what enforcement mechanisms might it require?
- How should the open-source AI movement be integrated securely into the global ecosystem?
- What Needs to Be Covered?
- Policy Proposal: Propose structured plans for policies that address liability, assurance, and resilience in AI development and deployment.
- Guidelines and Standards: Reference frameworks such as the NIST AI Risk Management Framework or Secure Software Development Framework.
- Safe Harbor Frameworks: Consider how organizations that follow recognized best practices could be protected.
- Stakeholder Collaboration: Highlight cooperative dynamics between government, private sector, academia, and open-source communities.
Submit Papers to the Google Form by October 25th, 2025.
The Cyber Policy competition will prompt students to submit a maximum 1500-word response to one of the two proposed focus areas. From these submissions, the CSAW committee will select the finalists.
Submit a maximum 1500-word response to one of the two proposed focus areas via the Google Form by October 25th, 2025.