CAREER: Computational number theory, cryptography, and computer security

University Of Illinois At Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Internet attackers gain access to computers in two ways. The first way is by monitoring and imitating the Internet activities of an authorized user. There are well-known cryptographic algorithms that protect against eavesdroppers, but today's cryptographic software is too slow to be universally deployed. The second way is by locating and exploiting bugs in communications software. The security community has been working for years to find these bugs before the attackers do, but programmers are adding bugs to security-critical software faster than security experts can fix them. This CAREER award project spans five areas: (1) cryptographic algorithms fast enough to be used for all Internet communications; (2) cryptographic protocols to protect specific Internet services against espionage and sabotage; (3) educational tools to help programmers learn how to write correct software; (4) tools to reduce the amount of software in which bugs can produce security problems; (5) secure replacements for widely used Internet servers that are habitually plagued by security problems.