ITR: Deployment-Oriented Security and Content Protection

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

One of the difficulties facing computer security systems is getting users and administrators to adopt them. The project studies a new approach to deploying security services called Deployment-Oriented Security. The first question is how to deploy security services in a viral-like fashion. The idea is that once a small set of users adopt a security system, they gradually get their friends to adopt the system and as a result the service propagates through the population. The project studies how this meme-like strategy applies to various security services such as secure e-mail, anonymity mechanisms, electronic voting, secure file systems, e-cash, etc. Another approach to promoting the deployment of security systems is to deploy the required infrastructure on the fly. For example, can one deploy an anonymizing server or a fair-exchange service on the fly to enable that service? How does one identify trusted hosts to deploy the service and how does one revoke corrupt or misbehaving hosts? The third topic studied in this project is how to deploy protection mechanisms in environments where information is being shared. The project will use new cryptographic tools to develop efficient key management techniques for broadcast data.