Stevens, Columbia and IBM Research hold Security and Privacy Day

HOBOKEN , N.J. — Stevens Institute of Technology Department of Computer Science, Columbia University and IBM Research held their third bi-annual Security and Privacy Day on Friday June 1, at Columbia University . The all-day meeting brought together about 70 researchers and practitioners in government, academia and industry, to discuss problems and possible solutions in cybersecurity, both for e-commerce and homeland security. A particular emphasis of the meeting is to bring together those interested in communications security and end-to-end security.

The keynote talk was delivered by Jon athan M. Smith, the Olga and Alberico Pompa Professor of Engineering and Applied Science in the department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania . Smith also was for several years a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

A common theme throughout the day was that security properties and proofs are only as strong as the assumptions that underlie them. For example, a system might be designed assuming that an attacker cannot measure the power consumption of the system. This might be justified for the original deployment scenario, say on office workstations to which attackers do not have physical access. Later the system might be deployed on small portable devices, however, and the assumption violated when a device is stolen.

Speakers stressed that security tools have improved to the point that it is now possible to make more realistic assumptions in some cases, but also that an ideal solution will need assumptions and security properties that evolve over time.

David Naumann, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Stevens, spoke about a new technology for specifying confidentiality and integrity policies and enforcing them. It addresses the need to declassify secrets and endorse untrusted inputs under controlled circumstances. Automated software engineering tools can enforce the policies with high assurance, given strong assumptions about the underlying operating platform. His talk emphasized the complementary role of other technologies to justify such assumptions.

In addition to the technical talks, the event also featured research posters presented by students.

The first Stevens/Columbia/IBM Research Security and Privacy Day was held at Stevens, with the second held at IBM Research. The next Security and Privacy Day will again be held at Stevens. The organizing committee members include, from Stevens Department of Computer Science, Professors Adriana Compagnoni, Dominic Duggan , David Naumann, Susanne Wetzel and Rebecca Wright ; Vugranam Sreedhar and Ray Valdez (IBM Research) and Angelos Keromytis (Columbia University). For more information, please contact Susanne Wetzel via e-mail at swetzel@cs.stevens. edu.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

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