Protect

Secure and useable end-user authentication is a major challenge in a modern society that allocates and relocates more and more resources online. As many users nowadays carry a mobile device (e.g., a smartphone), authentication approaches beyond the often-criticized traditional password leverage auxiliary information that can be received by, displayed on, computed by or sent from these omnipresent personal companions.

The more people use the Internet, the more they risk sharing information they don't want other people to know. Tor is a technology that every day helps millions of people protect their privacy online. Tor users -- ranging from ordinary citizens to companies with valuable intellectual property -- gain protection for the content of their online messages and activities, as well as whom they interact with and when. For the most part, Tor is very secure. However, it has a known vulnerability to an attack called website fingerprinting.

A defining characteristic of modern personal computing is the trend towards extensible platforms (e.g., smartphones and tablets) that run a large number of specialized applications, many of uncertain quality or provenance. The common security mechanisms available on these platforms are application isolation and permission systems. Unfortunately, it has been repeatedly shown that these mechanisms fail to prevent a range of misbehaviors, including privilege-escalation attacks and information-flow leakage.

The design of social media interfaces greatly shapes how much, and when, people decide to reveal private information. For example, a designer can highlight a new system feature (e.g., your travel history displayed on a map) and show which friends are using this new addition. By making it seem as if sharing is the norm -- after all, your friends are doing it -- the designer signals to the end-user that he can and should participate and share information.