Date and time: 11.30 - 12.30, Thursday 3rd February, 2012
Venue: 10.08.04 (Building 10, Level 8, Room 4)
Abstract:
As the standard e-commerce protocols are limited in the level of flexibility they can offer, there has been a growing interest in synthesising customised security protocols that meet the exact security requirements of collaborating entities. Past attempts to synthesise security protocols were based on beliefs based logic, challenge-response mechanisms and compositional logic. However, synthesising e-commerce security protocols has proven to be difficult for a number of reasons. Beliefs used in synthesis cannot be presented as evidence in e-commerce. Challenge response mechanisms are usually limited to two-party schemes involving only a single security goal, while e-commerce require schemes guaranteeing multiple security goals to multiple recipients. Compositional approach, though useful for combining schemes, cannot prevent protocol attacks as it does not explicitly reason about adversary actions. Often security requirements themselves are misunderstood as common security properties have multiple interpretations.
If e-commerce security protocols are to provide end-to-end security guarantees, the intermediaries should be chosen on the basis of their trustworthiness. Trustworthiness of an intermediary, may decline with misconducts. Proving misconduct, however, requires end-to-end schemes that make all intermediaries accountable. This thesis captures the symbiotic relationship that exists between end-to-end security guarantees and trust by using a holistic approach that combines a dynamic trust model with end-to-end schemes that make intermediaries and entities accountable.
About the speaker:
Charles Thevathayan is currently an academic staff member in the School of Computer Science and IT. His research interests lie in the area of Computer Security.
Seminar Organisation
Seminars are free and open to the general public. No booking is necessary. If you are interested in giving a presentation in this seminar series, or to make suggestions for speakers, please contact Xiaodong Li, the seminar co-ordinator.