Detect

The cybercriminal community is inarguably more organized, better resourced and more motivated than ever to perpetrate massive-scale computer infections across the Internet. The malware distribution systems that they control and operate are characterized by their use of highly specialized suppliers and commoditized malware services.

The proliferation and increasing sophistication of censorship warrants continuing efforts to develop tools to evade it. Yet, designing effective mechanisms for censorship resistance ultimately depends on accurate models of the capabilities of censors, as well as how those capabilities will likely evolve. In contrast to more established disciplines within security, censorship resistance is relatively nascent, not yet having solid foundations for understanding censor capabilities or evaluating the effectiveness of evasion technologies.

Cloud computing poses significant risks to the security of client data. Virtual Machine Monitors (VMMs) that underlie cloud systems typically have all-powerful administrative domains that can be exploited or misused to snoop on client virtual machines (VMs) and steal/modify their data. Moreover, although virtual machine technology enables several novel security services that clients may wish to use, such services are privileged and must be implemented within the administrative domain.

Smart phones have permeated all facets of our lives facilitating daily activities from shopping to social interactions. Mobile devices collect sensitive information about our behavior via various sensors. Operating systems (OS)enforce strict isolation between apps to protect data and complex permission management. Yet, apps get free access to hardware including CPU and caches. Access to shared hardware resources result in information leakage across apps. Microarchitectural attacks have already proven to succeed in stealing information on PC and even on virtualized cloud servers.

This project addresses several key emerging security challenges that arise due to the wildly successful large-scale adoption of mobile devices with diverse network capabilities. The novel approach focuses on to understanding how various information that are legitimately and willingly provided by smartphone users due to the requested permissions of downloaded applications can be potentially abused. The second research focus is to identify improvements in the design of cellular network middlebox (e.g., firewall) policies by detailed exposure and explicitly defining the key requirements.