Karen O'Donoghue

Author Archives: Karen O'Donoghue

The Best and the Brightest Security and Privacy Experts Are Gathering Virtually at NDSS 2021

The 28th consecutive Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS 2021) kicks off today. NDSS is a premier academic research conference addressing a wide range of topics on network and system security. It’s an incubator for new, innovative ideas and research on the security and privacy of the Internet.

NDSS 2021, which takes place 21-25 February, will be one of the biggest NDSS symposia yet, featuring two keynotes, 90 peer-reviewed academic papers, six co-located workshops, and 19 posters focusing on vital and timely topics. All of this will happen virtually for the first time!

Here are some of the highlights.

Workshops

This year’s program officially started yesterday with three workshops on Sunday, 21 February. NDSS workshops are organized around a single topic and provide an opportunity for greater dialogue between researchers and practitioners in the area.

The Binary Analysis Research (BAR) Workshop returns for its fourth year at NDSS. Binary analysis refers to the process where humans and automated systems examine underlying code in software to discover, exploit, and defend against vulnerabilities. With the enormous and ever-increasing amount of software in the world today, formalized and automated methods of analysis are vital to improving security. This workshop will emphasize the Continue reading

NTS RFC Published: New Standard to Ensure Secure Time on the Internet

The Internet Society is pleased to see the publication of RFC 8915: Network Time Security for the Network Time Protocol by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). This standard represents a new security mechanism for one of the oldest protocols on the Internet, the Network Time Protocol (NTP).

Secure and Accurate Time

NTP enables the synchronization of time on computers connected by a network. Time is very important for many vital everyday functions, such as financial transactions and the correct operation of electrical power systems and transportation systems. Secure and accurate time is also crucial for many Internet security technologies including basic website security. As everything becomes more distributed and more online, synchronized time in computers becomes even more important. But despite all this, security for NTP has lagged behind in development and deployment. Network Time Security (NTS) was developed to fill this gap.

The publication of the NTS protocol on 1 October, 2020 represents the culmination of many years of work by the IETF NTP Working Group. NTS adds cryptographic security for the client-server mode of NTP. So, what does this mean? It means that NTP can now confirm the identity of the network clocks that are exchanging time Continue reading

NDSS 2020: The Best in Security Research – For the Good of the Internet

On 23 February, the 27th consecutive Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS) kicks off in San Diego, CA. NDSS is a premier academic research conference addressing a wide range of topics on network and system security. It’s an incubator for new, innovative ideas and research on the security and privacy of the Internet.

NDSS 2020 (23-26 February) will be one of the biggest NDSS symposium yet, featuring 88 peer-reviewed academic papers, 34 posters, 5 workshops, and 2 keynotes on vital and timely topics. Here are some of the highlights.

Workshops

This year’s program officially starts with five workshops on Sunday, 23 February. NDSS workshops are organized around a single topic and provide an opportunity for greater dialogue between researchers and practitioners in the area.

The QUIC Privacy and Security (QUIPS) Workshop focuses on QUIC security and privacy analysis efforts. The IETF QUIC protocol is a modern UDP-based, stream-multiplexing, encrypted transport protocol. Inspired by prior art, QUIC’s packet and header encryption removes cleartext information from the network while simultaneously mitigating ossification of version-specific protocol behavior. The goal of the QUIPS workshop is to bring formal analysis results to the IETF working group and developer communities in order to build confidence Continue reading

NDSS 2019 Honors Timeless Papers

The papers and presentations are done, the awards and appreciation certificates have been handed out, and the boxes are packed and labeled for shipping. NDSS 2019 has come to a successful close. It was a record setting event with over 550 registrations, 89 papers, 36 posters, and four workshops. It was inspiring to see such energetic and passionate security research professionals gathered together in one place discussing their work. All of the highlights can be found at the NDSS 2019 website, including the Distinguished Paper and Distinguished Poster Awards for this year and the full program. It is worthwhile, however, to highlight a new award series initiated this year.

NDSS Test of Time Awards

This year, to kick off the second 25 years of NDSS, an NDSS Test of Time annual award was created. This award is for papers that were published more than ten years ago and have had a significant impact on both academia and industry in the years since. There were three awardees in the inaugural class.

The first Test of Time award is from 1996: SKEME: A Versatile Secure Key Exchange Mechanism for Internet by Hugo Krawczyk. SKEME was an integral component of early versions of Continue reading

NDSS 2019 Highlights the Best in Security Research

Tomorrow, the 26th consecutive Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS) is set to kick off in San Diego, CA. NDSS is a premier academic research conference addressing a wide range of topics associated with improving network and system security. A key focus of the Internet Society has long been improving trust in the global open Internet and all of its connected devices and systems. In today’s world, we need new and innovative ideas and research on the security and privacy of our connected devices and the Internet that connects them together.

NDSS 2019 (24-27 February) will be the biggest NDSS symposium yet, featuring 89 peer-reviewed papers, 35 posters, 4 workshops, and a keynote. Record registration numbers are a key indicator that NDSS 2019 is featuring vital and timely topics. Below are some of the highlights expected in the coming week.

Workshops

This year’s program officially starts with four workshops on Sunday, 24 February. NDSS workshops are organized around a single topic and provide an opportunity for greater dialogue amongst researchers and practitioners in the area. Each of this year’s workshops have dynamic agendas.

The Workshop on Binary Analysis Research (BAR) is returning for its second year at NDSS after a Continue reading

Announcing NDSS 2019 & the Call for Papers

It may seem far away, but it’s time to begin planning for the 26th Network and Distributed System Security Symposium. NDSS 2019 will once again be held in sunny San Diego at the lovely Catamaran Spa and Resort from 24-27 February 2019.

This annual security symposium is a premiere venue for fostering information exchange among researchers and practitioners of network and distributed system security. The target audience includes those interested in practical aspects of network and distributed system security, with a focus on actual system design and implementation. A major goal is to encourage and enable the Internet community to apply, deploy, and advance the state of available security technologies.

NDSS 2019 will have a new General Chair, Dr. Trent Jaeger of Pennsylvania State University. In addition, the Program Committee for NDSS 2019 is being chaired by Dr. Alina Opera of Northeastern University and Dr. Dongyan Xu of Purdue University. Additional positions will be announced in the coming weeks.

Most importantly for all you researchers out there, the NDSS 2019 Call for Papers has been released. As in years past, the focus of the symposium will be the many aspects of security and privacy including the security of emerging Continue reading

Rough Guide to IETF 101: Privacy, Identity, and Encryption

It’s that time again! In this post of the Rough Guide to IETF 101, I’ll take a quick look at some of the identity, privacy, and encryption related activities at IETF this coming week. Below a few of the many relevant activities are highlighted, but there is much more going on so be sure to check out the full agenda online.

Encryption

Encryption continues to be a priority of the IETF as well as the security community at large. Related to encryption, there is the TLS working group developing the core specifications, several working groups addressing how to apply the work of the TLS working group to various applications, and the Crypto-Forum Research Group focusing on the details of the underlying cryptographic algorithms.

The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Working Group is a key IETF effort developing core security protocols for the Internet. The big news out of this working group is the IESG approval of the TLS 1.3 specification. There is still some way to go before final publication, but the end is in sight.

There will be two TLS sessions this week. The Monday session will focus primarily on the ongoing discussion of data center operator concerns Continue reading

Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of NDSS

This year we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS). NDSS is a premier academic research conference addressing a wide range of topics associated with improving trust in the Internet and its connected devices. A key focus of the Internet Society has long been improving trust in the global open Internet. In order to promote this trust, we need new and innovative ideas and research on the security and privacy of our connected devices and the Internet that connects them together.

NDSS 2018 is about to get underway in San Diego, CA (18-21 February). It will be the biggest NDSS symposium yet, featuring 71 peer-reviewed papers, 20 posters, 4 workshops, 2 keynotes, and a co-located research group meeting. Record registration numbers are a key indicator that NDSS 2018 is featuring vital and timely topics. Below are some of the highlights expected in the coming week.

Workshops

This year’s program officially starts with four workshops on Sunday, 18 February. NDSS workshops are organized around a single topic and provide an opportunity for greater dialogue amongst researchers and practitioners in the area. Each of this year’s workshop have dynamic agendas.

The Workshop on Binary Continue reading

Rough Guide to IETF 100: Identity, Privacy, and Encryption

Identity, privacy, and encryption continue to be active topics for the Internet Society and the IETF community impacting a broad range of applications. In this Rough Guide to IETF 100 post, I highlight a few of the many relevant activities happening next week in Singapore, but there is much more going on so be sure to check out the full agenda online.

Encryption

Encryption continues to be a priority of the IETF as well as the security community at large. Related to encryption, there is the TLS working group developing the core specifications, several working groups addressing how to apply the work of the TLS working group to various applications, and the Crypto-Forum Research Group focusing on the details of the underlying cryptographic algorithms.

The Transport Layer Security (TLS) working group is a key IETF effort developing core security protocols for the Internet. This week’s agenda includes both TLS 1.3 and Datagram Transport Layer Security. Additionally, the TLS working group will be discussing connection ID, exported authenticators, protecting against denial of service attacks, and application layer TLS. The TLS working group is very active and, as with all things that are really important, there are many Continue reading

Announcing Four NDSS 2018 Workshops on Binary Analysis, IoT, DNS Privacy, and Security

The Internet Society is excited to announce that four workshops will be held in conjunction with the upcoming Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS) Symposium on 18 February 2018 in San Diego, CA. The workshop topics this year are:

A quick overview of each of the workshops is provided below. Submissions are currently being accepted for emerging research in each of these areas. Watch for the final program details in early January!

The first workshop is a new one this year on Binary Analysis Research (BAR). It is exploring the reinvigorated field of binary code analysis in light of the proliferation of interconnected embedded devices. In recent years there has been a rush to develop binary analysis frameworks. This has occurred in a mostly uncoordinated manner with researchers meeting on an ad-hoc basis or working in obscurity and isolation. As a result, there is little sharing or results and solution reuse among tools. The importance of formalized and properly vetted methods and tools for binary code analysis in order to deal with the scale of growth in these interconnected embedded devices cannot be overstated. Continue reading

Time Synchronization, Security, and Trust

Time is something that is often overlooked or taken for granted, but the accuracy and reliability of time is critical to our lives and must be protected. Time is a core concept underlying nearly all physical and virtual systems. Distributed computer systems, key to many functions inherent in our daily lives, rely on accurate and reliable time, yet we rarely stop and think about how that time is constructed and represented. Accurate and reliable time is needed to determine when an event occurs, in what order a particular sequence of events occurs, or when to schedule an event that is to occur at a particular time in the future. Finally, and of particular interest to our trust agenda here at the Internet Society, quality reliable time is required for many of the security technologies that help provide trust for the Internet. It is a vital and often overlooked part of the Internet infrastructure.

Some specific examples where accurate reliable secure time information is vital include:

  • The finance sector where there are high demands on the time synchronization of business clocks in trading systems. This is especially true in the high frequency trading where a new EU legislation called Markets Continue reading