Azer Bestavros
InTrans: Modular Security on an Open Cloud
This project explores the intriguing possibilities that result from the combination of two tools: cryptographic software that distributes any computing task over several machines with strong security guarantees as long as the machines are isolated, and a multi-provider cloud datacenter that offers to any tenant the ability to rent multiple isolated machines that are administered […]
EAGER: SaTC: Early-Stage Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Multi-regulation computation
This interdisciplinary project investigates whether existing cryptographic techniques for analyzing siloed data comport with participants’ legal restrictions on data disclosure. Secure multi-party computation (MPC) is a technique from cryptography that allows several participants, each with sensitive information, to analyze their data collectively without ever sharing it. Several companies, governments, and non-profit organizations have adopted MPC […]
NeTS: Small: Strategic Management of Advance Reservations in Cloud and Network Services
Part 1. Advance reservation (AR) services form a pillar of the economy. For instance, they are widely deployed in the industries of transportation, lodging, and health care. They are also increasingly being adopted for the management of resources in communication networks and in cloud computing. For users they offer assurance that resources will be available […]
CICI: RSARC: Trustworthy Computing over Protected Datasets
Scientists are often stymied in their research due to the inaccessibility of relevant data. Additionally, many data owners silo data away from powerful, economical cloud computing resources due to privacy and confidentiality concerns. This project enables data scientists to compute statistics over protected datasets while simultaneously empowering the owners of the underlying datasets to maintain […]
Smart and Connected Communities Workshop: Visioning for Effective Community/University/Industry Collaboration Models
Cities and communities face growing challenges as population size and demographics change, infrastructure ages, and economic and environmental pressures increase. Collaborations among cities and communities, universities, and industry have the potential to address these challenges — providing opportunities for information and communication technology innovations, research capacity building, and workforce growth. This project includes a two-part […]
SaTC: TTP: Small: Modular Platform for Web-based Secure Multi-Party Analytics
This project designs, develops, and applies a modular infrastructure for building web-based applications that allow individuals and organizations to benefit from privacy-preserving data aggregation and analysis in contexts where data sharing is encumbered by confidentiality concerns, legal restrictions, or corporate policies. Today, individuals and organizations face a tension between the explosion of valuable data that […]
PFI:BIC A Smart-city Cloud-based Open Platform and Ecosystem (SCOPE)
This NSF Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity (PFI:BIC) project from Boston University will research, prototype, and evaluate novel “smart-city” services for the city of Boston and for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The centerpiece of the project is a Smart-city Cloud-based Open Platform and Ecosystem (SCOPE), which creates a multisided marketplace for smart-city services based […]
TWC: TTP Option: Frontier: Collaborative: MACS: A Modular Approach to Cloud Security
The goal of the Modular Approach to Cloud Security (MACS) project is to develop methods for building information systems with meaningful multi-layered security guarantees. The modular approach of MACS focuses on systems that are built from smaller and separable functional components, where the security of each component is asserted individually, and where the security of […]
EAGER: Holistic Security for Cloud Computing: Verifiable Computation
A basic security concern inherent to outsourced computating services is guaranteeing the integrity of the information received from the cloud. The concern relates both to outsourced data storage and to the results of outsourced computations. There are several aspects to this problem like ensuring software correctness, protecting against intentional deviation and shortcuts, maintaining data provenance, […]
CPS: Synergy: Collaborative Research: A Cyber-Physical Infrastructure for the “Smart City”
The project aims at making cities “smarter” by engineering processes such as traffic control, efficient parking services, and new urban activities such as recharging electric vehicles. To that end, the research will study the components needed to establish a Cyber-Physical Infrastructure for urban environments and address fundamental problems that involve data collection, resource allocation, real-time […]