• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, August 28, 2015

The Federal Trade Commission is calling for original research into privacy and security issues, including how "vulnerabilities" might be exploited to harm consumers.

The agency will address the research on Jan. 14 at a conference about privacy.

“We want to increase the FTC’s engagement with the technology community in order to more effectively encourage innovation that is protective of consumer privacy and security,” FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said in a statement. “Our goal is to have leading experts in privacy and data security sit at the table with us and other policymakers to discuss their original research findings and the implications for consumer privacy."

Notice of the conference, which the FTC is calling PrivacyCon, comes several weeks after security researchers successfully hacked into a moving Jeep Cherokee, remotely cutting the car's transmission while a reporter was driving the vehicle on a St. Louis highway.

In addition to reports about vulnerabilities, the agency also is seeking recent research into topics including connected health devices, smart homes, de-identification techniques, connected vehicles, drones and Big Data.

The agency says it is especially interested in participation by "whitehat" researchers, academics and security experts.

"For the past several years, their work to strengthen privacy and security protections in this country has greatly benefitted the FTC and the public," the agency said in a statement on its new PrivacyCon site.