When network participants do not know how to trust each other, network operations suffer. Participants that naively trust will be victimized and their resources misused. Mistrustful participants will ignore opportunities and their resources will be wasted through inefficiencies. Current research on the establishment of trust often focuses on narrow models and specific domains. There is a gap between point solutions and a system-wide trust infrastructure. This research will address the major issues in designing such a trust infrastructure. In particular, what are the threat models for a trust infrastructure? How should those threats be mitigated? What is the meaning of trust, its properties, and measurement? Where and how should trusts in applications and across networks be managed? This project has several major components: a formal methodology for trust quantification and establishment, case studies, architectural design, graduate and undergraduate education, and outreach to the community at large. The goal of this research is to improve network performance without sacrificing network security through the right trust infrastructure.
CAREER: Building Trust in Distributed Networks: Theories, Architecture and Applications