Empathetic Processing and Temporal Link Analysis: Research Pathways for AI in Cyber Defense

Charles Herring 9 November 2025
Empathetic Listening
Empathetic Processing models analytics as a human‑centric dialogue: systems listen to diverse signals, resolve dissonance among conflicting narratives, and speak findings in role‑appropriate language for analysts, auditors, and executives. This approach reduces reliance on brittle parsers through NLP‑based intent comprehension and anticipates compliance requirements from the moment of ingestion—predestination of data—ensuring forensic completeness before incidents occur.

New Zealand Move Notes

Charles Herring 2 November 2025
Charles in Russel New Zealand

Background

Over the course of a year from November 2025 to November 2026, Mai and I researched and eventually moved to New Zealand. We were looking for a life change and my work at WitFoo needed to plan for international expansion. My extensive notes are found below. 

Advisors

Our move was made much easier by a few advisors. I am pretty good at paperwork and research and thought of doing it myself to save some money. I ended up feeling that all 3 of these advisors over delivered on value and made our move much more successful.

Tags

The Wizard, The Warrior and The Poet

Charles Herring 4 March 2025
Wizard, Warrior and Peot

In the labyrinth of our professional lives, the roles we assume can often feel overwhelming. Balancing strategy, execution, and inspiration requires a delicate dance of various skills and mindsets. To navigate this complexity, I have compartmentalized my work into three distinct personas: The Wizard, The Warrior, and The Poet. Each persona plays a vital role in the tapestry of my professional endeavors, allowing me to approach challenges with clarity, purpose, and creativity.

The Wizard: Master of Strategy and Vision

The journey begins with The Wizard, a figure of wisdom and foresight. When I don the robe of The Wizard, I immerse myself in the realm of strategy and planning. The Wizard's primary concern is to devise the best possible strategy, envisioning the grand scheme in its entirety. This persona thrives on considering every facet of a plan, ensuring that all systems and stakeholders are accounted for.

GrrCON 2024 - Birthing Perjury-free AI

Charles Herring 23 September 2024
GrrCON

Abstract

Cybersecurity analysis leading to deterrence of cybercrime requires processing thousands to billions of digital signals per second. Those signals must be accurately comprehended, forensically preserved then used to detect and investigate potential cybercrime. The work products must not only assist the investigators but must be translated into language that non-technical lay audiences including judges, lawyers and jurors can understand.

This presentation explores how generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), natural language processing (NLP), graph-theory and artificial narrow intelligence (ANI) can play a role in delivering these outcomes.

The session includes demonstrations of opensource toolkits, datasets and models designed to assist in this work.

Mai's Whole Grain Sticky Rice

Charles Herring 10 November 2023
Mai's Genmai Rice
Being born and raised in Japan and a methodical cook, Mai has mastered cooking the perfect bowl of rice (in my opinion.) When she was visiting Japan and I was at home, I asked her help in learning how to make it myself. The recipe includes both her original guidance and my American translation (dumbing down.) It is a staple in everyday meals in our home. The whole grain, brown, genmai rice has additional fiber and nutrients over most typical white rice.

Vegan Double-Chocolate, Double-Nut Cookies

Charles Herring 10 November 2023
Vegan Double-Chocolate, Double-Nut Cookies
This recipe is adapted from the peanut-butter cookies I made with my mother and brother as a child. I've converted the recipe to be a plant-based, vegan recipe and I replace refined sugar with sweeteners that are gentler on the body. The cookie is pretty high in protein and fiber for a cookie. They are not overly sweet and are an effective way of satiating my sweet tooth without regret. They are sticky and messy to make but worth the effort.

Machine Learning Driven Social Engineering

Charles Herring 5 November 2023
Machine Learning in Social Engineering
Given at the 10th Annual Chicago Hacking Conference on 11/6/23. Machine learning (ML) is arguably the most potent advancement in technology since atomic fission with similar benefit and risk extremes. The outcome driven nature of machine learning allows computers to rapidly test theories to find pathways to support specific goals. These approaches applied to social engineering can be used to manipulate human factors for purposes including cybersecurity breach. This session will cover the philosophies, strategies and tactics used to accomplish a successful campaign to recruit human assets to a cause. Factors to mitigate risk in these advanced social engineering attacks will also be examined.

GrrCON 2023 - Deterring Cybercrime via a Global CyberGrid

Charles Herring 27 September 2023
GrrCON

Abstract

Detecting, catching and successfully prosecuting cybercrime requires collaboration across private sector, law enforcement, insurance companies and national security agencies. In this session, approaches to collect, analyze, store and share digital evidence will be examined. Methods of safely transmitting data between private sector and law enforcement will be discussed. Demonstration of workflows between investigators, law enforcement, prosecutors and insurance adjusters will be covered. 

I also reference this 2021 DarkReading Article: Handcuffs over AI.

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