Scientific Foundations

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Visible to the public TWC: Medium: HARDWARE-ASSISTED LIGHTWEIGHT CAPABILITY OPTIMIZATION (HALCYON)

Submitted by Jonathan Smith on Tue, 01/02/2018 - 11:54am

To address today's environment of constant security challenges and cyber-threats, the Hardware-Assisted Lightweight Capability Optimization (HALCYON) research explores novel techniques to make the performance of more secure system designs acceptable to users. Conventional system designs have achieved acceptable performance, but have evolved from hardware and software designs that carry forward compromises in security that made sense in the past, but not with modern hardware resources in today's security climate.

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Visible to the public TWC TTP: Small: Collaborative: Privacy-Preserving Data Collection and Access for IEEE 802.11s-Based Smart Grid Applications

Submitted by Xiuzhen Cheng on Tue, 01/02/2018 - 11:39am

The modernized Smart Grid (SG) is expected to enable several new applications such as dynamic pricing, demand response and fraud detection; however, collection of such fine-grained data raises privacy issues. This project aims to design and implement several novel mechanisms for securing data collection and communication in SG Advanced Metering Infrastructure applications while preserving user privacy when the data are to be accessed.

Outcomes Report URL: 
https://www.research.gov/research-portal/appmanager/base/desktop?_nfpb=true&_win...
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Visible to the public TWC: Small: Collaborative: Toward Trusted Third-Party Microprocessor Cores: A Proof Carrying Code Approach

Submitted by Yiorgos Makris on Tue, 01/02/2018 - 11:30am

Third-party hardware Intellectual Property (IP), written as code in a Hardware Description Language (HDL), is extensively used in modern integrated circuits. Contemporary electronics typically include 75% of third party hardware IP and only 25% in-house design to provide customization or a profit-making edge. Such extensive use of third-party hardware IP in both commercial and military applications raises security and trustworthiness concerns, especially in today's globalized market.

Outcomes Report URL: 
https://www.research.gov/research-portal/appmanager/base/desktop?_nfpb=true&_win...
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Visible to the public  TWC: Small: Language-level Control of Authority

Submitted by Stephen Chong on Tue, 01/02/2018 - 11:27am

Modern computer applications are typically made up of different software components that are created by, or may act on behalf of, mutually distrustful entities. To ensure the security of computer systems, it is important to restrict the ability of the components to perform actions within the computer system. The Principle of Least Authority states that a component should be given only the ability (or authority) it needs to perform its task, and no more.

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Visible to the public TWC: Small: Develop Fine-Grained Access Control for Third-Party Components in Mobile Systems

Submitted by Wenliang Du on Tue, 01/02/2018 - 11:19am

Smartphones and tablets are being used widely, and with such a pervasive use, protecting mobile systems is of critical importance. One of the unique features in mobile systems is that many applications incorporate third-party components, such as advertisement, social-network APIs, and the WebView component (that runs third-party JavaScript code).

Outcomes Report URL: 
https://www.research.gov/research-portal/appmanager/base/desktop?_nfpb=true&_win...
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Visible to the public TWC: TTP Option: Small: Differential Introspective Side Channels --- Discovery, Analysis, and Defense

Submitted by Zhuoqing Mao on Tue, 01/02/2018 - 11:17am

Side channels in the security domain are known to be challenging to discover and eliminate systematically. Nevertheless, they can lead to a variety of stealthy attacks seriously compromising cybersecurity. This work focuses on an important class of side channels that are fundamental to the operations of networked systems.

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Visible to the public TWC: Small: Discovering and Restricting Undesirable Information Flows Between Multiple Spheres of Activities

Submitted by Atul Prakash on Tue, 01/02/2018 - 10:45am

Loss of personal data or leakage of corporate data via apps on mobile devices poses a significant risk to users. It can have both a huge personal and financial cost. This work is designing new novel techniques to help reduce the risks for end-users who use a single device for multiple spheres of activity. Getting security right when a single device is used for multiple spheres of activity is a major research challenge, with unforeseen information flows between various subsystems that are currently difficult to control.

Outcomes Report URL: 
https://www.research.gov/research-portal/appmanager/base/desktop?_nfpb=true&_win...
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Visible to the public CAREER: Secure and Trustworthy Provenance for Accountable Clouds

Submitted by ragibhasan on Tue, 01/02/2018 - 10:41am

Cloud computing has emerged as one of the most successful computing models in recent years. However, lack of accountability and non-compliance with data protection regulations have prevented major users such as business, healthcare, and defense organizations from utilizing clouds for sensitive data and applications. Due to the lack of information about cloud internals and the inability to perform trustworthy audits, today's clouds are often not used in regulated industries, preventing their widespread adoption.

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Visible to the public  TWC: Small: Collaborative: Practical Security Protocols via Advanced Data Structures

Submitted by Roberto Tamassia on Tue, 01/02/2018 - 10:37am

Data structures have a prominent modern computational role, due to their wide applicability, such as in database querying, web searching, and social network analysis. This project focuses on the interplay of data structures with security protocols, examining two different paradigms: the security for data structures paradigm (SD) and the data structures for security paradigm (DS).

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Visible to the public  TWC: Small: Empowering Anonymity

Submitted by Anna Lysyanskaya on Tue, 01/02/2018 - 10:32am

An anonymous credential system allows a user to prove that he/she is authorized without revealing his/her identity, and, further, to obtain additional credentials without revealing additional information. In a traditional anonymous credential system, when demonstrating possession of a credential, it is necessary to reveal its issuer.

Outcomes Report URL: 
https://www.research.gov/research-portal/appmanager/base/desktop?_nfpb=true&_win...