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SUMMARY:IC Colloquium : Securing information release: systems\, models\, a
 nd programming languages
DTSTART:20130404T161500
DTEND:20130404T173000
DTSTAMP:20260407T053550Z
UID:0629cd664cb7bbd1343db985c5690777dc84553b6498f2a363d64347
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Aslan Askarov\, Harvard University\, School of Engineering and
  Applied Sciences\nIC faculty candidate\nAbstract\nComputer systems someti
 mes need to release some confidential information. However\, they must als
 o prevent inadvertent release of information that should remain confidenti
 al. These requirements significantly complicate reasoning about system sec
 urity\, and are not addressed by conventional security mechanisms. To prov
 ide assurance for such systems we need to develop principled approaches fo
 r specifying and enforcing secure information release. In this talk\, I wi
 ll describe how this can be achieved using systems and programming languag
 es techniques.\nThe first part of the talk will focus on controlling inadv
 ertent leaks in complex systems.  I will discuss the leaks that happen wh
 en an adversary can measure the time at which a system performs an observa
 ble action\, also known as timing channels. I will explain how timing chan
 nels present a serious threat in computer security\, and introduce predict
 ive mitigation---a general technique for mitigating timing channels that w
 orks by predicting timing from past behavior and public information. Rathe
 r than eliminating timing channels entirely\, predictive mitigation bounds
  the amount of information that an adversary can learn via timing channels
  with a trade-off in system performance. Under reasonable assumptions\, th
 e bounds are logarithmic in the running time of the system.\nThe second pa
 rt of the talk will present insights into the formalization of practical s
 ecurity specifications for the intentional release of confidential informa
 tion. I will introduce a programming language-based framework that provide
 s a formal vocabulary for expressing such specifications. Example specific
 ations include what information may be released\, when a release may happe
 n\, and whether an adversary has any control over a release. These specifi
 cations are soundly enforceable using a variety of static and dynamic prog
 ram analyses.Biography\nAslan Askarov is currently a postdoctoral fellow a
 t Harvard University\, and was previously a postdoctoral associate at Corn
 ell University. He received a PhD from Chalmers University of Technology i
 n Gothenburg\, Sweden in 2009. Aslan's research interests include computer
  security\, programming languages\, and systems.
LOCATION:BC 420 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==BC%20420
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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