ISG

With the continuing growth of the use of the Internet for business purposes, the consequences of a possible cyber attack that could create a large scale outage of long time duration is an increasingly important economic issue. In 2003, the President's National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace stated that government action is warranted where alleged "market failures result in underinvestment in cyber security". However, there is scant empirical evidence and/or theoretical support for such "market failure".

This project is developing an automated defense system for enterprise networks against malicious code attacks such as worms, viruses and spyware. This system responds to attacks by dynamically and selectively quarantining hosts, services, and other networked devices. Traditional containment systems based on firewalls and individual host isolation are not adequate for containing the new generation of local-scanning, topological, metaserver and contagion worms that can spread very quickly through an enterprise.

The popularity of personal gadgets opens up many new services for ordinary users. Many everyday usage scenarios involve two or more devices "working together". (Emerging scenarios are beginning to involve sensors and personal RFID tags.) Before working together, devices must be securely "paired" to enable secure and private communication.