Security
Security involves safeguarding software systems, embedded systems IoT (Internet of Things), mobile systems, and cyber-physical systems from threats such as software vulnerabilities, attacks, and other types of malicious and harmful activity. CISE researchers apply a variety of techniques from a number of fields (program analysis, machine learning, computational social science) to better understand such systems and the way in which people interact with them and misuse them. Research in CISE includes development of automated dynamic malware-analysis techniques and tools to analyze potentially malicious samples. Another line of research involves hardening the security of wireless ingestible and implantable medical devices (IMDs), such as on-demand drug delivery systems and bio-engineered wireless medical sensors, for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.
Manuel Egele Receives The 2020 Early Career Research Award
Dr. Manuel Egele, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Co-director of the Boston University Secure Systems Lab, is the recipient of the 2020 Early Career Research Excellence Award. This award celebrates the significant, recent, high-impact research achievements of exemplary tenure-track faculty who are within 10 years of receiving their Ph.D. Dr. Egele’s research spans all areas of […]
Collaborative Research: CIF: Small: Toward a Science of Vehicular Epidemiology: Computing, Control, and Security
Vehicle-to-everything communication is a transformational emerging technology that is poised to enhance transportation safety and traffic management, thereby saving lives and yielding major economic gains by alleviating traffic congestion. This technology will enable vehicles to communicate with each other, as well as with traffic signals, road side units, bikes, wheelchairs, and pedestrians to augment situational […]
BU Researchers Propose Method for Controlling COVID-19 through Cellphones
CISE faculty affiliate Ari Trachtenberg along with fellow Boston University Computer Science professors Mayank Varia, and Ran Canetti recently published a paper that proposes a method for using cellphones to track COVID-19, while protecting user privacy. The researchers write: “Successful containment of the Coronavirus pandemic rests on the ability to quickly and reliably identify those […]
CAREER: Toward Securing Emerging Computing Platforms via Large-Scale Dynamic Analysis
The Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to permeate all aspects of our daily lives, from already existing smart home assistants, over increasingly popular industrial applications, to yet to be developed personal health devices. Clearly, these technologies offer exciting and new opportunities, yet the software and devices that comprise the IoT encompass serious security threats. […]
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 […]
SaTC: CORE: Medium: Collaborative: Taming Memory Corruption with Security Monitors
Modern computing systems are under constant attack by organized crime syndicates, nation-state adversaries, and regular cyber-criminals alike. Among the most damaging attacks are those that exploit so-called memory corruption vulnerabilities which often confer the attacker with access to sensitive information or allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code on the victim’s machine. To counter the […]
How Fitbits, Other Bluetooth Devices Make Us Vulnerable to Tracking
BU researchers found that a third-party algorithm can track the location of some Bluetooth devices In 2018, nearly 3.7 billion new Bluetooth-enabled devices shipped worldwide to consumers. From phones and speakers to thermostats and fridges, home appliances and personal devices including “wearables” are rapidly becoming more connected by Wi-Fi than ever before, creating what’s called […]
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 […]
In-Situ Malware Containment and Deception through Dynamic In- Process Virtualization
The malware landscape has evolved from the domain of attention-seeking miscreants, into a diverse spectrum ranging from best-effort mass-market malware to highly sophisticated state sponsored attacks using implants, remote access Trojans, and advanced evasion techniques. While existing research mainly focuses on detection, classification, and prevention of various malware threats, this project turns the table on […]
CISE Affiliate Professor Manuel Egele Awarded $750,000 Grant from ONR for Malware Research
Malware is a constant threat in the 21st century. The most common way to deal with a malware infection is to clean the malicious software from a computer or to reinstall its operating system in an effort to restore its original functionality. However, sophisticated malware that steals sensitive information can, upon detection, be repurposed to […]