Privacy and Security

Description:
This research area involves a number of different sub-disciplines, including the following:  mathematics; communications protocols; distributed systems; software development; specification and formal design; model checking and theorem proving; verification, validation, & testing; and hardware/firmware design.  It seeks to combine some of these sub-disciplines in ways that allow secure and private interactions over electronic and wireless networks.  

Applications:
The Internet can be a dangerous place where malicious software, denial of service, phishing, credit card theft, identity theft, and other attacks threaten the well-being and productivity of many in society.  Other electronic networks – including voice/data networks (such as cell phone and wireless ad hoc nets), text networks (such as IM), and social networks (such as Facebook and mySpace) – are not much better.  The goal of this research is to create environments in which it is safe for people to work and play.  Specific applications include e-commerce, e-business, online gaming, healthcare, and corporate & government networks.

PROFESSORS:

• Adams (group)
  privacy technologies, cryptography, access control
• Bochmann (group)
  security of distributed applications, trust management
• Boukerche (group)
  security for wireless ad hoc and sensor networks, modeling intrusion detection for mobile phone systems
• Felty (group)
  policy compliance and policy verification, proof-carrying code
• Jourdan, Guy-Vincent
  security of software applications
• Logrippo, Luigi
  formal methods in security
• Matwin, Stan
  privacy-preserving data mining, privacy enhancing technologies
• Miri (group)
  secure sensor and ad hoc networks, biometric-based cryptosystems, cryptography for resource-constrained devices
• Peyton, Liam
  privacy for federated identity management frameworks, privacy for evolving e-health business processes
• Yeap, Tet Hin
  security for SIP-based real-time communication applications, network identity-enabled architectures, network-based micropayments, next-generation RFID architecture and applications

Research groups involving several professors:

• Ontario Research Network on Electronic Commerce - Information and Communications Technologies (ORNEC-ICT)

Some recent projects:

• Delegation and proxy services for digital credential environments [Adams; project funded in part by ORNEC]
• Formal verification of a new algorithm for detecting conflicts in firewall access rules [Felty/Matwin; funded in part by NSERC, OCE]
• Security for SIP-based real-time communication applications; network identity-enabled architectures; network-based micropayments; next-generation RFID architecture and applications [Yeap; Partner: Bell University Laboratories]
• Expressing and Proving Privacy-Sensitive Information Flow Properties using the Java Modeling Language [Felty/Matwin, funded by NSERC (Discovery grant and Idea-to-Innovation)]
• A Semantic Approach to Foundational Proof-Carrying Code [Felty, funded in part by NSERC, partner: Secure Internet Programming Lab at Princeton University, USA]
• Methods and tools for the design validation, implementation, and testing of security policies [Logrippo; Partner: Computer Associates]