This project, establishing a security laboratory, called SecLab, provides a computing cluster for supporting large-scale computation needs in security and crypto research, a heterogeneous lab environment for security research, and a safe environment to experiment with hostile software. The infrastructure supports a mix of established and new research. Grounded in cryptography, formal methods, complexity theory, operating systems, networks, and programming languages and compilers, the research couples strong theory with experimental research in programming language and systems, algorithms, and model checking. The projects are aimed at providing a strong set of the well-grounded protections necessary for computer security. Addressing the issues raised by the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) in a report entitled Cyber Security: A Crisis in Prioritization, SecLab supports experimental research in:
-High speed cryptography so that all communications over the Internet can be protected from modification by an attacker; -Cryptanalysis to increase understanding of the strength of cryptographic protections; -Authorization models to protect against hostile software, hackers, and insiders; and -Distributed authentication to support safe computing involving multiple organizations.
Broader Impact: Broader impacts include providing much needed computer security research in a broad range of areas; educating and training students in an area where there is shortage; developing courses and materials; producing and making available needed software, and increasing the ability for outreach to the community on security issues. Additionally, helping others to replicate some courses and set up similar labs, findings are shared with the general research community.
