Entries Tagged "academic papers"

Page 69 of 86

DARPA Research into Clean-Slate Network Security Redesign

This looks like a good research direction:

Is it possible that given a clean slate and likely millions of dollars, engineers could come up with the ultimate in secure network technology? The scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) think so and this week announced the Clean Slate Design of Resilient, Adaptive, Secure Hosts (CRASH) program that looks to lean heavily on human biology to develop super-smart, highly adaptive, supremely secure networks.

For example, the CRASH program looks to translate human immune system strategies into computational terms.  In the human immune system multiple independent mechanisms constantly monitor the body for pathogens. Even at the cellular level, multiple redundant mechanisms monitor and repair the structure of the DNA. These mechanisms consume tons of resources, but let the body continue functioning and to repair the damage caused by malfunctions and infectious agents, DARPA stated.

Posted on June 9, 2010 at 12:59 PM • View Comments

Alerting Users that Applications are Using Cameras, Microphones, Etc.

Interesting research: “What You See is What They Get: Protecting users from unwanted use of microphones, cameras, and other sensors,” by Jon Howell and Stuart Schechter.

Abstract: Sensors such as cameras and microphones collect privacy-sensitive data streams without the user’s explicit action. Conventional sensor access policies either hassle users to grant applications access to sensors or grant with no approval at all. Once access is granted, an application may collect sensor data even after the application’s interface suggests that the sensor is no longer being accessed.

We introduce the sensor-access widget, a graphical user interface element that resides within an application’s display. The widget provides an animated representation of the personal data being collected by its corresponding sensor, calling attention to the application’s attempt to collect the data. The widget indicates whether the sensor data is currently allowed to flow to the application. The widget also acts as a control point through which the user can configure the sensor and grant or deny the application access. By building perpetual disclosure of sensor data collection into the platform, sensor-access widgets enable new access-control policies that relax the tension between the user’s privacy needs and applications’ ease of access.

Apple seems to be taking some steps in this direction with the location sensor disclosure in iPhone 4.0 OS.

Posted on May 24, 2010 at 7:32 AM • View Comments

Applications Disclosing Required Authority

This is an interesting piece of research evaluating different user interface designs by which applications disclose to users what sort of authority they need to install themselves. Given all the recent concerns about third-party access to user data on social networking sites (particularly Facebook), this is particularly timely research.

We have provided evidence of a growing trend among application platforms to disclose, via application installation consent dialogs, the resources and actions that applications will be authorized to perform if installed. To improve the design of these disclosures, we have have taken an important first step of testing key design elements. We hope these findings will assist future researchers in creating experiences that leave users feeling better informed and more confident in their installation decisions.

Within the admittedly constrained context of our laboratory study, disclosure design had surprisingly little effect on participants’ ability to absorb and search information. However, the great majority of participants preferred designs that used images or icons to represent resources. This great majority of participants also disliked designs that used paragraphs, the central design element of Facebook’s disclosures, and outlines, the central design element of Android’s disclosures.

Posted on May 21, 2010 at 1:17 PM • View Comments

Automobile Security Analysis

“Experimental Security Analysis of a Modern Automobile,” by a whole mess of authors:

Abstract: Modern automobiles are no longer mere mechanical devices; they are pervasively monitored and controlled by dozens of digital computers coordinated via internal vehicular networks. While this transformation has driven major advancements in efficiency and safety, it has also introduced a range of new potential risks. In this paper we experimentally evaluate these issues on a modern automobile and demonstrate the fragility of the underlying system structure. We demonstrate that an attacker who is able to infiltrate virtually any Electronic Control Unit (ECU) can leverage this ability to completely circumvent a broad array of safety-critical systems. Over a range of experiments, both in the lab and in road tests, we demonstrate the ability to adversarially control a wide range of automotive functions and completely ignore driver input—including disabling the brakes, selectively braking individual wheels on demand, stopping the engine, and so on. We find that it is possible to bypass rudimentary network security protections within the car, such as maliciously bridging between our car’s two internal subnets. We also present composite attacks that leverage individual weaknesses, including an attack that embeds malicious code in a car’s telematics unit and that will completely erase any evidence of its presence after a crash. Looking forward, we discuss the complex challenges in addressing these vulnerabilities while considering the existing automotive ecosystem.

Posted on May 21, 2010 at 6:56 AM • View Comments

Young People, Privacy, and the Internet

There’s a lot out there on this topic. I’ve already linked to danah boyd’s excellent SXSW talk (and her work in general), my essay on privacy and control, and my talk—”Security, Privacy, and the Generation Gap“—which I’ve given four times in the past two months.

Last week, two new papers were published on the topic.

“Youth, Privacy, and Reputation” is a literature review published by Harvard’s Berkman Center. It’s long, but an excellent summary of what’s out there on the topic:

Conclusions: The prevailing discourse around youth and privacy assumes that young people don’t care about their privacy because they post so much personal information online. The implication is that posting personal information online puts them at risk from marketers, pedophiles, future employers, and so on. Thus, policy and technical solutions are proposed that presume that young would not put personal information online if they understood the consequences. However, our review of the literature suggests that young people care deeply about privacy, particularly with regard to parents and teachers viewing personal information. Young people are heavily monitored at home, at school, and in public by a variety of surveillance technologies. Children and teenagers want private spaces for socialization, exploration, and experimentation, away from adult eyes. Posting personal information online is a way for youth to express themselves, connect with peers, increase popularity, and bond with friends and members of peer groups. Subsequently, young people want to be able to restrict information provided online in a nuanced and granular way.

Much popular writing (and some research) discusses young people, online technologies, and privacy in ways that do not reflect the realities of most children and teenagers’ lives. However, this provides rich opportunities for future research in this area. For instance, there are no studies of the impact of surveillance on young people—at school, at home, or in public. Although we have cited several qualitative and ethnographic studies of young people’s privacy practices and attitudes, more work in this area is needed to fully understand similarities and differences in this age group, particularly within age cohorts, across socioeconomic classes, between genders, and so forth. Finally, given that the frequently-cited comparative surveys of young people and adult privacy practices and attitudes are quite old, new research would be invaluable. We look forward to new directions in research in this area.

“How Different Are Young Adults from Older Adults When it Comes to Information Privacy Attitudes & Policy?” from the University of California Berkeley, describes the results of a broad survey on privacy attitudes.

Conclusion: In policy circles, it has become almost a cliché to claim that young people do not care about privacy. Certainly there are many troubling anecdotes surrounding young individuals’ use of the internet, and of social networking sites in particular. Nevertheless, we found that in large proportions young adults do care about privacy. The data show that they and older adults are more alike on many privacy topics than they are different. We suggest, then, that young-adult Americans have an aspiration for increased privacy even while they participate in an online reality that is optimized to increase their revelation of personal data.

Public policy agendas should therefore not start with the proposition that young adults do not care about privacy and thus do not need regulations and other safeguards. Rather, policy discussions should acknowledge that the current business environment along with other factors sometimes encourages young adults to release personal data in order to enjoy social inclusion even while in their most rational moments they may espouse more conservative norms. Education may be useful. Although many young adults are exposed to educational programs about the internet, the focus of these programs is on personal safety from online predators and cyberbullying with little emphasis on information security and privacy. Young adults certainly are different from older adults when it comes to knowledge of privacy law. They are more likely to believe that the law protects them both online and off. This lack of knowledge in a tempting environment, rather than a cavalier lack of concern regarding privacy, may be an important reason large numbers of them engage with the digital world in a seemingly unconcerned manner.

But education alone is probably not enough for young adults to reach aspirational levels of privacy. They likely need multiple forms of help from various quarters of society, including perhaps the regulatory arena, to cope with the complex online currents that aim to contradict their best privacy instincts.

They’re both worth reading for anyone interested in this topic.

Posted on April 20, 2010 at 1:50 PM • View Comments

Security for Implantable Medical Devices

Interesting study: “Patients, Pacemakers, and Implantable Defibrillators: Human Values and Security for Wireless Implantable Medical Devices,” Tamara Denning, Alan Borning, Batya Friedman, Brian T. Gill, Tadayoshi Kohno, and William H. Maisel.

Abstract: Implantable medical devices (IMDs) improve patients’ quality of life and help sustain their lives. In this study, we explore patient views and values regarding their devices to inform the design of computer security for wireless IMDs. We interviewed 13 individuals with implanted cardiac devices. Key questions concerned the evaluation of 8 mockups of IMD security systems. Our results suggest that some systems that are technically viable are nonetheless undesirable to patients. Patients called out a number of values that affected their attitudes towards the systems, including perceived security, safety, freedom from unwanted cultural and historical associations, and self-image. In our analysis, we extend the Value Sensitive Design value dams and flows technique in order to suggest multiple, complementary systems; in our discussion, we highlight some of the usability, regulatory, and economic complexities that arise from offering multiple options. We conclude by offering design guidelines for future security systems for IMDs.

Posted on April 15, 2010 at 1:55 PM • View Comments

Storing Cryptographic Keys with Invisible Tattoos

This idea, by Stuart Schechter at Microsoft Research, is—I think—clever:

Abstract: Implantable medical devices, such as implantable cardiac defibrillators and pacemakers, now use wireless communication protocols vulnerable to attacks that can physically harm patients. Security measures that impede emergency access by physicians could be equally devastating. We propose that access keys be written into patients’ skin using ultraviolet-ink micropigmentation (invisible tattoos).

It certainly is a new way to look at the security threat model.

Posted on April 15, 2010 at 6:43 AM • View Comments

Externalities and Identity Theft

Chris Hoofnagle has a new paper: “Internalizing Identity Theft.” Basically, he shows that one of the problems is that lenders extend credit even when credit applications are sketchy.

From an article on the work:

Using a 2003 amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act that allows victims of ID theft to ask creditors for the fraudulent applications submitted in their names, Mr. Hoofnagle worked with a small sample of six ID theft victims and delved into how they were defrauded.

Of 16 applications presented by imposters to obtain credit or medical services, almost all were rife with errors that should have suggested fraud. Yet in all 16 cases, credit or services were granted anyway.

In the various cases described in the paper, which was published on Wednesday in The U.C.L.A. Journal of Law and Technology, one victim found four of six fraudulent applications submitted in her name contained the wrong address; two contained the wrong phone number and one the wrong date of birth.

Another victim discovered that his imposter was 70 pounds heavier, yet successfully masqueraded as him using what appeared to be his stolen driver’s license, and in one case submitted an incorrect Social Security number.

This is a textbook example of an economic externality. Because most of the cost of identity theft is borne by the victim—even with the lender reimbursing the victim if pushed to—the lenders make the trade-off that’s best for their business, and that means issuing credit even in marginal situations. They make more money that way.

If we want to reduce identity theft, the only solution is to internalize that externality. Either give victims the ability to sue lenders who issue credit in their names to identity thieves, or pass a law with penalties if lenders do this.

Among the ways to move the cost of the crime back to issuers of credit, Mr. Hoofnagle suggests that lenders contribute to a fund that will compensate victims for the loss of their time in resolving their ID theft problems.

Posted on April 14, 2010 at 6:57 AM • View Comments

Man-in-the-Middle Attacks Against SSL

Says Matt Blaze:

A decade ago, I observed that commercial certificate authorities protect you from anyone from whom they are unwilling to take money. That turns out to be wrong; they don’t even do that much.

Scary research by Christopher Soghoian and Sid Stamm:

Abstract: This paper introduces a new attack, the compelled certificate creation attack, in which government agencies compel a certificate authority to issue false SSL certificates that are then used by intelligence agencies to covertly intercept and hijack individuals’ secure Web-based communications. We reveal alarming evidence that suggests that this attack is in active use. Finally, we introduce a lightweight browser add-on that detects and thwarts such attacks.

Even more scary, Soghoian and Stamm found that hardware to perform this attack is being produced and sold:

At a recent wiretapping convention, however, security researcher Chris Soghoian discovered that a small company was marketing internet spying boxes to the feds. The boxes were designed to intercept those communications—without breaking the encryption—by using forged security certificates, instead of the real ones that websites use to verify secure connections. To use the appliance, the government would need to acquire a forged certificate from any one of more than 100 trusted Certificate Authorities.

[…]

The company in question is known as Packet Forensics…. According to the flyer: “Users have the ability to import a copy of any legitimate key they obtain (potentially by court order) or they can generate ‘look-alike’ keys designed to give the subject a false sense of confidence in its authenticity.” The product is recommended to government investigators, saying “IP communication dictates the need to examine encrypted traffic at will.” And, “Your investigative staff will collect its best evidence while users are lulled into a false sense of security afforded by web, e-mail or VOIP encryption.”

Matt Blaze has the best analysis. Read his whole commentary; this is just the ending:

It’s worth pointing out that, from the perspective of a law enforcement or intelligence agency, this sort of surveillance is far from ideal. A central requirement for most government wiretapping (mandated, for example, in the CALEA standards for telephone interception) is that surveillance be undetectable. But issuing a bogus web certificate carries with it the risk of detection by the target, either in real-time or after the fact, especially if it’s for a web site already visited. Although current browsers don’t ordinarily detect unusual or suspiciously changed certificates, there’s no fundamental reason they couldn’t (and the Soghoian/Stamm paper proposes a Firefox plugin to do just that). In any case, there’s no reliable way for the wiretapper to know in advance whether the target will be alerted by a browser that scrutinizes new certificates.

Also, it’s not clear how web interception would be particularly useful for many of the most common law enforcement investigative scenarios. If a suspect is buying books or making hotel reservations online, it’s usually a simple (and legally relatively uncomplicated) matter to just ask the vendor about the transaction, no wiretapping required. This suggests that these products may be aimed less at law enforcement than at national intelligence agencies, who might be reluctant (or unable) to obtain overt cooperation from web site operators (who may be located abroad).

Posted on April 12, 2010 at 1:32 PM • View Comments

Cryptanalysis of the DECT

New cryptanalysis of the proprietrary encryption algorithm used in the Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) standard for cordless phones.

Abstract. The DECT Standard Cipher (DSC) is a proprietary 64-bit stream cipher based on irregularly clocked LFSRs and a non-linear output combiner. The cipher is meant to provide confidentiality for cordless telephony. This paper illustrates how the DSC was reverse-engineered from a hardware implementation using custom firmware and information on the structure of the cipher gathered from a patent. Beyond disclosing the DSC, the paper proposes a practical attack against DSC that recovers the secret key from 215 keystreams on a standard PC with a success rate of 50% within hours; somewhat faster when a CUDA graphics adapter is available.

News.

Posted on April 8, 2010 at 1:05 PM • View Comments

1 … 67 68 69 70 71 … 86

Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.