Unal Tatar

Dr. Unal Tatar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cybersecurity at the University at Albany, SUNY, where he has been a member of the faculty since 2018. He brings more than two decades of experience in cybersecurity, spanning government, academia and international initiatives.

He previously led the National Computer Emergency Response Team of Turkey (TR-CERT), where he coordinated the country’s national cyber exercises and helped draft its first national cybersecurity strategy. Internationally, he has advised NATO’s Center of Excellence for Defense Against Terrorism, where he organized workshops on cyber terrorism, developed training curricula and supported NATO cyber defense exercises. He also collaborated with NATO’s Combined Joint Operations from the Sea Centre of Excellence on maritime cyber risk.

Dr. Tatar’s research focuses on decision-making in the context of cybersecurity, bringing together perspectives from risk analysis, economics, engineering and policy. He examines the economics of cybersecurity and risk management, with particular attention to the challenges of cyber insurance and the quantification of cyber risks. He studies the protection of critical infrastructure and national security, developing models that capture the cascading impacts of cyberattacks across interconnected systems. He also advances cybersecurity capacity building and workforce development by developing curricula and training programs that prepare the next generation of cyber professionals.

His research is highly collaborative, involving partnerships with both government agencies and industry leaders. He has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on projects funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Office of Naval Research, the National Security Agency, NIST, NATO and the Society of Actuaries (SOA). These initiatives include leading the DoD-funded multi-university Virtual Institute of Cyber Operations and Research and directing the planning of the Industry–University Cooperative Research Center on Cyber and Terrorism Insurance Studies (CATIS Center). Altogether, his portfolio of grants and contracts totals more than four million dollars and reflects his role in bridging research, practice and policy.

Dr. Tatar has authored two edited volumes and more than 40 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals such as Risk Analysis, Computers & Security and Telecommunications Policy, reflecting the interdisciplinary and applied nature of his scholarship. He is recognized for bridging technical, managerial and policy aspects of cybersecurity, and his expertise has been acknowledged with a Research Fellowship from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and a Fellowship with the Trusted CI NSF Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. His research and commentary have also been featured in prominent outlets including NPR, Fortune, The Regulatory Review and the Insurance Journal.