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Trustworthy Overlay Peer-to-Peer Streaming Systems

Collaborative Services for Wireless Mesh Networks

STEWARD

Survivable Infrastructures for National Civilian Biodefense

SWAN

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A Survivable Infrastructure for National Civilian Biodefense

[Overview]   [Students]   [Publications]   [Software]   [Presentations]   [Courses]   [Resources]   [Funding]  

Overview

The project focuses on developing the theoretical foundation and the protocols that facilitate a survivable information infrastructure that meets all the critical requirements of a national emergency response system. The proposed research will:
• Develop the theoretical foundation and the protocols necessary to construct a large-scale survivable messaging system, resilient to the broad threat model, including insider attacks and denial of service, and man-in-the-middle attacks.
• Develop the theoretical foundation and protocols to construct information access system that provides correct and authenticated data to users even in the presence of compromised database servers.
• Develop the theoretical foundation and software that mitigate the effects of content providers injecting (authenticated and authorized but) incorrect content, either erroneously or maliciously. The developed capability will allow easy marking of corrupted or suspected data and will facilitate the return of the system to a correct state.

Current research focuses on:

• proposing architectures for anonymity systems with the consideration of scalability, robustness and quality-of-service, while preserving anonymity services.
• design access control mechanisms for group oriented applications.
• investigate the problem of dealing with malicious clients in data-driven applications.

Students

Current members:

• David Zage, Graduate Student
• Camille Gaspard, Graduate Student

Previous members:

• Kevin Bauer, Graduate Student
• Bogdan Carbunar, Graduate Student
• Mehmet Demirci, Undergraduate Student
• Jacques Thomas, Graduate Student
• Dan Vacura, Undergraduate Student
• AAron Walters, Graduate Student
• Josh Olsen, Undergraduate Student
• Tom Scogland, Undergraduate Student
• Jeff Seibert, Graduate Student

Related Courses

• Distributed Systems (CS 603) - Spring 2006.
• Insider Threats to Information Systems (CS 590T) - Fall 2004.
• Cryptography (CS 555) - Spring 2005.
• Cryptography (CS 355), undergraduate version of 555 - Spring 2005.
• Security Topics in Networking and Distributed Systems (CS 590D) - Spring 2004.

Publications

A Framework for Mitigating Attacks Against Measurement-Based Adaptation Mechanisms in Unstructured Multicast Overlay Networks. A. Walters, D. Zage, and C. Nita-Rotaru. In IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, Volume 16, Issue 6, December 2008. [Full paper] [Abstract] [Bibtex].

Enabling Confidentiality of Data Delivery in an Overlay Broadcasting System. R. Torres X. Sun, A. Walters, C. Nita-Rotaru, and S. Rao. In Special Issue of IEEE JSAC on Advances in Peer-to-Peer Streaming Systems, vol. 25, no.9, December 2007. [Full paper] [Abstract] [Bibtex].

JANUS: A Framework for Scalable and Secure Routing in Hybrid Wireless Networks. B. Carbunar, I. Ioannidis, and C. Nita-Rotaru. To appear in IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Systems (TDSC), 2008. [Full paper] [Abstract] [Bibtex].

STEWARD: Scaling Byzantine Fault-Tolerant Replication to Wide Area Networks. Y. Amir, C. Danilov, D. Dolev, J. Kirsch, J. Lane, C. Nita-Rotaru, J. Olsen, and D. Zage. In IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC), 26 August, 2008. [Full paper] [Abstract] [Bibtex].

A Survey of Attack and Defense Techniques for Reputation Systems K. Hoffman, D. Zage, and C. Nita-Rotaru. To appear in ACM Computing Surveys, vol. 14, no.4 Dec. 2009. [Full paper] [Abstract] [Bibtex].

On the Accuracy of Decentralized Network Coordinate Systems in Adversarial Networks. D. Zage and C. Nita-Rotaru. In the 14th ACM CCS, Alexandria, VA, USA, October 29 - November 2, 2007. [Full paper] [Abstract] [Bibtex].

Enabling Confidentiality of Data Delivery in an Overlay Broadcasting System. R. Torres X. Sun, A. Walters, C. Nita-Rotaru, and S. Rao. In INFOCOM 2007, Anchorage, Alaska. [Full paper] [Abstract] [Bibtex].

Mitigating Attacks Against Measurement-Based Adaptation Mechanisms in Unstructured Multicast Overlay Networks. A. Walters, D. Zage, and C. Nita-Rotaru. In The 14th IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP), November 12-15, 2006 Santa Barbara, California. [Full paper] [Abstract] [Bibtex].

Mitigating Attacks Against Measurement-Based Adaptation Mechanisms in Overlay Networks. A. Walters. Purdue University, Master Thesis, May 2006. West Lafayette, IN. [Full paper] [Abstract] [Bibtex].

Analysis of Malicious Abstract Faults in Adaptive Measurement-Based Overlay Networks. A. and C. Nita-Rotaru. Poster in Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP), October 23-26 2005, Brighton, United Kingdom.

A Framework for Role-Based Access Control in Group Communication Systems. C. and N. Li. In 2004 International Workshop on Security in Parallel and Distributed Systems. In conjunction with the 17th International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems (PDCS), September 15-17, 2004, San Francisco, CA. [Full paper] [Abstract] [Bibtex].

Scalable Routing in Hybrid Cellular and Ad-Hoc Networks. I. Ioannidis, B. Carbunar, and C. Nita-Rotaru. In IEEE International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks, Taormina / Giardini Naxos, Italy June, 2005. [Full paper] [Abstract] [Bibtex].

JANUS: Towards Robust and Malicious Resilient Routing in Hybrid Wireless Networks. B. Carbunar, I. Ioannidis and C. Nita-Rotaru. In Workshop in Wireless Security (WiSe) 2004. In conjunction with MOBICOM 2004, Philadelphia, PA, Sept. 2004. [Full paper] [Abstract] [Bibtex].

DAISY: Increasing Scalability and Robustness of Anonymity Systems. Technical Report CSD TR #04-018. Oct. 2004 Chi-Bun Chan and Cristina Nita-Rotaru. [Full paper] [Abstract] [Bibtex].

Software

Simulation code for attacks against and defenses for the Vivaldi virtual coordinate system: The code implements coordinate deflation, inflation, and oscillation attacks, as well as techniques to reduce incorrect coordinate mappings using spatial and temporal correlations to p erform context-sensitive outlier analysis. This code is implemented as part of the p2psim-0.3 distribution

Presentations

Mitigating Attacks Against Measurement-Based Adaptation Mechanisms in Unstructured Multicast Overlay Networks. Presented at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, Sept. 2007. Presented by Cristina Nita-Rotaru.

Mitigating Attacks Against Measurement-Based Adaptation Mechanisms in Unstructured Multicast Overlay Networks. Presented at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, Oct. 2007. Presented by Cristina Nita-Rotaru.

Mitigating Attacks Against Measurement-Based Adaptation Mechanisms in Unstructured Multicast Overlay Networks. Presented in The 14th IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols(ICNP), Santa Barbara, California, November 12-15, 2006. West Lafayette, IN, November, 2006. Presented by David Zage.

Mitigating Attacks Against Measurement-Based Adaptation Mechanisms in Unstructured Multicast Overlay Networks. Presented in Purdue University, Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS) Seminar, West Lafayette, IN, November, 2006. Presented by David Zage.

Mitigating Attacks Against Measurement-Based Adaptation Mechanisms in Unstructured Multicast Overlay Networks. Presented in Georgia Institute of Technology, Center for Experimental Research in Computer Systems (CERCS) Seminar, Atlanta, GA, November, 2006. Presented by Cristina Nita-Rotaru.

Towards Resilient Overlay Networks: Enhancing Adaptivity with Byzantine Resilience. Presented in Boston University Computer Science Seminar, Boston, Ma, February, 2006. Presented by Cristina Nita-Rotaru.

Towards Resilient Overlay Networks: Enhancing Adaptivity with Byzantine Resilience. Presented in Colorado State Computer Science seminar, Fort Collins, CO, January, 2006. Presented by Cristina Nita-Rotaru.

A Framework for Role-Based Access Control in Group Communication Systems Presented at 2004 International Workshop on Security in Parallel and Distributed Systems In conjunction with the 17th International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems PDCS-2004 San Francisco, CA, September 15-17, 2004. Presented by Cristina Nita-Rotaru.

JANUS: Towards Robust and Malicious Resilient Routing in Hybrid Wireless Networks In Workshop in Wireless Security WiSe 2004, In conjunction with MOBICOM 2004, Philadelphia, PA, Sept. 2004 Bogdan Carbunar, Ioanis Ioannidis and Cristina Nita-Rotaru. Presented by Bogdan Carbunar.

Resources

Anonymity

Bibliography & References

• Anonymity Bibliography - The Free Haven Project
• Anonymous and Pseudonymous Communications and Systems Bibliography
• Anonymity and Privacy on the Internet - iNFOSYSSEC - The Security Portal for Information System Security Professionals
• Neil F. Johnson's Information Hiding -- An Annotated Bibliography

Projects & Groups

• Onion Routing
• The Free Network Project
• The Free Haven Project
• The Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) Project - AT&T Research Lab
• Laboratory for International Data Privacy - CMU
• Mini-PROBE: Anonymous Communication

Conferences

• ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security
• ACM Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society
• The Computers Freedom & Privacy Conference
• International Workshop on Information Hiding

Other

• Anonymous Communications on the Internet - American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Protecting privacy through anonymity tools - MIT
• The Anonymizer
• Freedom - Internet Security & Privacy
• Project "anonymity and unobservability in the Internet"

Funding

A collaborative project with Johns Hopkins University and University of California at Los Angeles, funded by the NSF CyberTrust Program. Principal Investigators: Yair Amir (Johns Hopkins University). Cristina Nita-Rotaru (Purdue University) and Rafi Ostrovski (UCLA).

Send your comments and questions to Cristina Nita-Rotaru