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Marcelo M. Leal

@mleal.bsky.social
144 followers 175 following 19 posts

Assistant Professor of Cyber Security, Technology, and Policy at UT Dallas. Previously at UMass Amherst and UFRGS.

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Reposted by Marcelo M. Leal
The Great Pumpkin Papers 🎃🎃🎃 @professormusgrave.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I guess it's time to mention that some limited evidence suggests that Americans will become more willing to retaliate against state-backed cyberattacks as their consequences grow more severe journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
Hitting back or holding back in cyberspace: Experimental evidence regarding Americans’ responses to cyberattacks - Marcelo M Leal, Paul Musgrave, 2023
Theorists offer many predictions about how Americans will respond to significant cyberattacks but systematic evaluations of American public opinion regarding th...
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Marcelo M. Leal @mleal.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
My paper "Blame Games in Cyberspace" is now in print in International Interactions. The TL;DR: When allies back a cyber attribution claim, the public gets more confident and more hawkish. When adversaries deny it, especially by contesting the evidence, confidence dips, though less reliably. 1/3
tandfonline.com
Blame Games in Cyberspace: How Foreign Cues Shape Public Opinion on Cyber Attribution and Retribution
Conflicting narratives about who is responsible for a cyberattack are often thought to create uncertainty about the aggressor’s identity, which in turn could lead to greater restraint in state resp...
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Marcelo M. Leal @mleal.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
Come work with us! Great department and colleagues.
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Marcelo M. Leal @mleal.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Do allies and adversaries shape U.S. views on cyber attribution? In a new paper at @intlinteractions.bsky.social, I show that allies’ endorsements boost Americans' trust in attribution and support for retribution, while adversary denials produce limited and inconsistent effects.
tandfonline.com
Blame Games in Cyberspace: How Foreign Cues Shape Public Opinion on Cyber Attribution and Retribution
Conflicting narratives about who is responsible for a cyberattack are often thought to create uncertainty about the aggressor’s identity, which in turn could lead to greater restraint in state resp...
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Reposted by Marcelo M. Leal
Dov H. Levin @dovlevin.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Are you a graduate student planning to present a paper at the 2025 APSA conference on an IR/Foreign Policy topic? Need some funds to cover costs of attending? APSA's Foreign Policy section travel grant is there just for you- Apply Now!
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Reposted by Marcelo M. Leal
Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 20/03/2025
I’ve long used FiveThirtyEight’s interactive “Hack Your Way To Scientific Glory” to illustrate the idea of p-hacking when I teach statistics. But ABC/Disney killed the site earlier this month :( So I made my own with #rstats and Observable and #QuartoPub ! stats.andrewheiss.com/hack-your-way/
Screenshot of the linked Quarto website, with input checkboxes to change different conditions for a regression model that predicts economic performance based on US political party, with a reported p-value
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Marcelo M. Leal @mleal.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
Great essay on why we should be paying more attention to attention in our information-rich era.
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Marcelo M. Leal @mleal.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Highly recommended! Well-deserved!
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Marcelo M. Leal @mleal.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
É do Brasil 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷
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Marcelo M. Leal @mleal.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
Last week in my Cyber Policy & National Security class, students mentioned DOGE's access to federal systems, which led us to discuss some cyber vulnerabilities. This week, I’m referring them to @profsaunders.bsky.social & @jimgoldgeier.bsky.social article in @foreignaffairs.com. It's a must-read!
foreignaffairs.com
Does DOGE Pose a National Security Risk?
Uncertainty about access and authority will worry allies and tempt adversaries.
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Marcelo M. Leal @mleal.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
This! Since moving back to the U.S., I've gained a few pounds. Same diet (we cook almost everything from scratch), but now I drive everywhere. In Rio, I walked and took public transit all the time. Big difference!
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Reposted by Marcelo M. Leal
Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
We're getting the social media crisis wrong The bigger problem isn't disinformation. It's degraded democratic publics. On Zuckerberg today and Musk over the last few weeks. www.programmablemutter.com/p/were-getti...
programmablemutter.com
We're getting the social media crisis wrong
The bigger problem isn't disinformation. It's degraded democratic publics
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Reposted by Marcelo M. Leal
Letterboxd @letterboxd.social · 06/01/2025
Fernanda Torres wins Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for I'm Still Here 🎥 #GoldenGlobes boxd.it/BPEO
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Reposted by Marcelo M. Leal
Vincent Arel-Bundock @vincentab.bsky.social · 20/10/2024
📚🚨 I posted 11 new chapters of my upcoming book! Model to Meaning: How to Interpret Statistical Results with #marginaleffects for #RStats and Python. These are early drafts and I really need your feedback! Errors, content requests, improvements, etc. marginaleffects.com
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Reposted by Marcelo M. Leal
Siv Cheruvu @sivcheruvu.bsky.social · 19/09/2024
UT-Dallas is hiring for an open rank faculty position in IR! We're particularly interested in scholars studying IPE and/or Conflict. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions! polisky psjminfo jobs.utdallas.edu/postings/27562
jobs.utdallas.edu
Open Rank Faculty Positions in International Relations
Position Description The School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences (EPPS) at The University of Texas at Dallas is seeking applications for two open-rank positions specializing in international...
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Reposted by Marcelo M. Leal
Elizabeth Sacha Baroness Cohen @alixabeth.bsky.social · 11/09/2024
Me, to students asking for my syllabus in August: “I have concepts of a plan”
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Reposted by Marcelo M. Leal
Good Authority @goodauth.bsky.social · 04/09/2024
Did you know we are now on Substack? We're publishing articles there daily, so if that's your preferred source, make sure you're subscribed. goodauthority.substack.com
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Marcelo M. Leal @mleal.bsky.social · 15/08/2024
I’m excited to share that I'm starting a new position as an Assistant Professor of Cyber Security, Technology, and Policy at The University of Texas at Dallas! I’ve been holding onto this news for a while and can’t wait for what’s ahead. A huge thank you to everyone who helped me get here.
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Marcelo M. Leal @mleal.bsky.social · 11/06/2024
I am thrilled to share that I have successfully defended my dissertation. Huge thanks to everyone who has played a part in making this journey worth celebrating! I’m particularly grateful to Jane Fountain, @profmusgrave.bsky.social, and Alasdair Roberts for their guidance and support.
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Reposted by Marcelo M. Leal
Filipe Campante @filipecampante.bsky.social · 13/05/2024
I don't know if this has registered so much outside Brazil, but speaking as someone who knows the region well, and still has lots of family there: this has been unimaginably horrible and devastating. The climate dystopia has arrived, and it's really, really awful... www.reuters.com/world/americ...
reuters.com
Persistent Brazil floods raise specter of climate migration
Devastating and ongoing flooding in southern Brazil is forcing some of the half million displaced residents to consider uprooting their lives from inundated towns to rebuild on higher ground.
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Marcelo M. Leal @mleal.bsky.social · 31/10/2023
The UK's AI Safety Summit is almost upon us and @slehuede.bsky.social has a great commentary on it. A must-read particularly after the Biden-Harris administration singled out the summit in the fact sheet of its executive order on AI yesterday. skynet
blogs.lse.ac.uk
AI is global, but the UK government’s summit is insular
As the UK prepares to host its AI Safety Summit, Sebastián Lehuedé, a researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Centre of Governance and Human Rights, argues that far from being a ‘global’ e...
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Marcelo M. Leal @mleal.bsky.social · 30/10/2023
The White House just released an Executive Order on AI. It requires the most powerful AI systems to share safety test results, orders NIST to develop standards and tests to ensure that AI systems are safe and secure, and calls on Congress to pass bipartisan data privacy legislation. skynet
whitehouse.gov
FACT SHEET: President Biden Issues Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intel...
Today, President Biden issued a landmark Executive Order to ensure that America leads the way in seizing the promise and managing the risks of artificial intelligence (AI). The Executive Order establi...
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Reposted by Marcelo M. Leal
kim yi dionne (she/her) @dadakim.bsky.social · 16/10/2023
We at @goodauth.bsky.social are excited to share this call for the Good Authority fellows program. Deadline is January 15. Application is brief. Please share! (And yes, in my mind, I'm calling it goodfellas.) goodauthority.org/news/good-au...
goodauthority.org
Announcing the Good Authority fellows program
Apply by Jan. 15, 2024 for the Good Authority fellowship and be a regular contributor to our blog on politics and political science.
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John Sides @johnsides.bsky.social · 22/09/2023
New from me @goodauth.bsky.social: I show how a change in the Cooperative Election Study from select-all-that-apply to forced-choice produce a big "shift" in immigration attitudes. Maybe only 40 people will care about this, but here's the graph! goodauthority.org/news/the-pro...
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Marcelo M. Leal @mleal.bsky.social · 23/08/2023
I'm always amazed that the whole American continent has issues with the term "American," yet most U.S. persons do not know that this is an issue at all. @profmusgrave.bsky.social is an exception to this pattern and has just published a great piece reflecting on this.
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Marcelo M. Leal @mleal.bsky.social · 22/08/2023
Using my first post here to spread the word about this great article I have with @profmusgrave.bsky.social. It uses survey experiments to examine the zero-day disclosure dilemma, U.S. vulnerability disclosure policy, and U.S. public opinion. Open access using the link below #polisky
t.co
Backwards from zero: How the U.S. public evaluates the use of zero-day vulnerabilities in cybersecur...
Zero-day vulnerabilities are software and hardware flaws that are unknown to computer vendors. As powerful means of carrying out cyber intrusions, such vulnerabilities present a dilemma for governm...
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