Protect

The use of cloud computing has revolutionized the way in which cyber infrastructure is used and managed. The on-demand access to seemingly infinite resources provided by this paradigm has enabled technical innovation and indeed innovative business models and practices. This rosy picture is threatened, however, by increasing nefarious interest in cloud platforms. Specifically, the shared tenant, shared resource nature of cloud platforms, as well as the natural accrual of valuable information in cloud platforms, provide both the incentive and the possible means of exploitation.

Cloud computing allows users to delegate data and computation to cloud providers, at the cost of giving up physical control of their computing infrastructure. An attacker with physical access to the computing platform can perform various physical attacks, referred to as digital insertion and observation attacks, which include probing memory buses, tampering with memory, and cold-boot style attacks. While memory encryption can prevent direct leakage of data under digital observation, memory access patterns to even encrypted data may leak sensitive information.

Cloud computing allows users to delegate data and computation to cloud providers, at the cost of giving up physical control of their computing infrastructure. An attacker with physical access to the computing platform can perform various physical attacks, referred to as digital insertion and observation attacks, which include probing memory buses, tampering with memory, and cold-boot style attacks. While memory encryption can prevent direct leakage of data under digital observation, memory access patterns to even encrypted data may leak sensitive information.

This project is developing tools and techniques for cost-effective evaluation of the trustworthiness of mobile applications (apps). The work focuses on enterprise scenarios, in which personnel at a business or government agency use mission-related apps and access enterprise networks.

The goal of our work is to (a) capture people's expectations and surprises in using mobile apps in a scalable manner, and to (b) summarize these perceptions in a simple format to help people make better trust decisions. Our main idea is analyzing privacy in the form of people's expectations about what an app will and won't do, focusing on where an app breaks people's expectations. We are building an App Scanner that combines automated scanning techniques with crowdsourcing.