Research Infrastructure

The protection of cyber-physical critical infrastructures such as the power grid, water distribution networks, and transportation networks against computer attacks is a matter of national security, public safety, and economic stability; however, most of these critical assets are owned and operated by private companies with pressing operational requirements, tight security budgets, and aversion to regulatory oversight. As a result it is not clear that market incentives alone will create enough momentum to improve the security posture of these systems.

This project studies the security of representative personalized services, such as search engines, news aggregators, and on-line targeted advertising, and identifies vulnerabilities in service components that can be exploited by pollution attacks to deliver contents intended by attackers.

Attacks on computer networks are an all too familiar event, leaving operators with little choice but to deploy a myriad of monitoring devices to ensure dependable and stable service on the networks they operate. However, as networks grow bigger and faster, staying ahead of the constant deluge of attack traffic is becoming increasingly difficult. A case in point is the attacks on enterprise name servers that interact with the Domain Name System (DNS). These name servers are critical infrastructure, busily translating human readable domain names to IP addresses.

By collecting sensor data from individuals in a user community, e.g., using their smartphones, it is possible to learn the behavior of communities, for example locations, activities, and events. Similarly, using data from personal health monitoring sensors, it is possible to learn about the health risks and responses to treatments for population groups. But is it possible to use the valuable information for the greater good without disclosing information about the individuals contributing the data? What about protecting this information from improper access?

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.