NSF Announces Two Cybersecurity Centers to Study Internet Epidemiology and "Ecology"

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

 NSF ANNOUNCES TWO CYBERSECURITY CENTERS TO STUDY INTERNET EPIDEMIOLOGY 
AND
 "ECOLOGY"
 Centers top list of awards from NSF's $30 million Cyber Trust program





 (Embedded image moved to file: pic21945.jpg)
 NSF has announced 33 new projects from its Cyber Trust program, 
including
 two new cybersecurity research centers. Cyber Trust projects are 
looking
 not only for new ways to cope with imperfections in today's systems, 
but
 also for the knowledge and techniques to build better systems in the
 future.
 Credit: iStockPro


 ARLINGTON, Va.?The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced 33 
new
 projects from its $30 million Cyber Trust program, including two new
 cybersecurity research centers that will focus on eliminating plagues 
of
 Internet worms and viruses and on building better security defenses 
through
 a deeper understanding of Internet "ecology."


 "The Cyber Trust program?the centerpiece of NSF's leadership of
 cybersecurity research and development?promotes research into more
 dependable, accountable and secure computer and network systems," said
 Peter Freeman, NSF assistant director for computer and information 
science
 and engineering. "We are very pleased to be able to add these 
activities to
 our growing portfolio of work in this critical area."


 The first center, led by Mike Reiter of Carnegie Mellon University will
 focus on "Security Through Interaction Modeling" (STIM). In the same 
way
 that ecology studies the web of life, the STIM Center will pursue
 fundamental understanding of the networks of interactions among humans,
 computers, and even cyberattacks.


 The STIM Center, with anticipated funding of $6.4 million over five 
years,
 will explore ways to create more effective and usable defenses by 
modeling
 these networks of interactions and making the models an integral part 
of
 the defenses. Among its activities, the center will study healthy 
network
 interactions to see what distinguishes them from attacks; examine the
 network interactions of particular "species" of applications, such as
 e-mail or peer-to-peer networks, for clues to limiting successful 
attacks;
 and, to develop better defenses, study how cyber-attackers can combine
 attacks to reach their goals.


 The Center for Internet Epidemiology and Defenses will be led by Stefan
 Savage of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and Vern 
Paxson
 of the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI), affiliated 
with UC
 Berkeley. The center, with expected five-year funding of $6.2 million, 
will
 be dedicated to wiping out those plagues of the Internet, worms and 
viruses
 that infect thousands upon thousands of computers and cause billions of
 dollars in down time, network congestion and potentially lost data.


 Taking cues from the field of epidemiology, the center will work to
 understand how the Internet's open communications and software
 vulnerabilities permit worms to propagate, to devise a global-scale 
early
 warning system to detect epidemics in their early stages, to develop
 forensics capabilities for analyzing wide-ranging infections, and to
 develop techniques and devices that can suppress outbreaks before they
 reach pandemic proportions.


 "These centers as well as our other funded activities are looking not 
only
 for new ways to cope with imperfections in today's systems, but also 
for
 the knowledge and techniques to build better systems in the future," 
said
 Carl Landwehr, program director for Cyber Trust. "We had a number of 
strong
 proposals, indicating the depth of interest in this area by the 
academic
 research community."


 Both centers will also initiate significant efforts in education and
 workforce development and coordinate with ongoing outreach activities 
on
 their campuses. The centers' results will be incorporated into
 undergraduate and graduate courses, K-12 and college-level curricula 
and
 training programs for high-school students and faculty at traditionally
 minority-serving institutions.


 In addition to the two centers, the Cyber Trust program will support 
12 new
 team projects and 19 individual or small-group projects, out of nearly 
400
 projects proposed.


 For securing today's systems, new Cyber Trust awards include projects 
that
 will investigate methods for detecting tampered photographs that have 
not
 been tamper-proofed, improve tools used in network forensics, and 
evaluate
 the strength of biometrics, which are increasingly advocated as a 
means for
 identifying users in all kinds of systems. New awards also support 
research
 into better detection of and defense against malicious code, anomalies 
in
 network routing, distributed denial of service attacks and other system
 intrusions.


 To better secure tomorrow's systems, new Cyber Trust awards are aimed 
both
 at the detection and removal of software flaws and at developing
 architectures and algorithms that are resilient even in the face of 
such
 flaws. More fundamental work in cryptography, the foundation of many
 mechanisms for protecting digital information and establishing trust 
will
 also be supported.


 New Cyber Trust awards also support multidisciplinary research to 
improve
 understanding of the social, legal, ethical and economic trade-offs 
that
 affect the design and operation of trusted information systems. 
Finally,
 all Cyber Trust projects encompass education and workforce development 
to
 ensure that those who produce, operate and use trusted systems can put 
the
 technological advances into practice.



 For more information see:

 NSF Cyber Trust Program:
 http://www.cise.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_display.cfm?pub_id=6476



 ###



 NSF-PR 04-124



 Program contact:  Carl Landwehr, NSF, (703) 292-8950, clandweh () nsf gov



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 over $200 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

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