Systems Security

Within the software and systems security theme, academics and researchers from the group are investigating various aspects of security pertaining to industrial systems. The research efforts of the group have three main drivers: the practical application of new security technologies (such as Trusted Computing); exploring and addressing the security needs of emerging computing environments (with distributed healthcare research and delivery being a primary interest); and the investigation of new methods and tools for improving the design process of security and the usability of secure systems. As a result of the group's activities in this area, very strong links with major industrial partners (such as IBM, Hewlett Packard and QinetiQ) have been established; there is also strong interest in the commercial application of some of the group's outputs. Furthermore, the group has raised over £2M (in terms of project and studentship funding) over the past three years for work in this area. The group's strengths in the area of security has led the Software Engineering Programme to establish a part-time MSc in Software and Systems Security to supplement its offerings in the areas of Software Engineering and Object Technology.

Selected Publications

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• Exploring the use of Intel SGX for Secure Many−Party Applications

  K.A. Küçük‚ A. Paverd‚ A. Martin‚ N. Asokan‚ A. Simpson and R. Ankele

  In Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on System Software for Trusted Execution (SysTEX '16). New York‚ NY‚ USA. 2016. ACM.

  The theoretical construct of a Trusted Third Party (TTP) has the potential to solve many security and privacy challenges. In particular‚ a TTP is an ideal way to achieve secure multiparty computation—a privacy−enhancing technique in which mutually distrusting participants jointly compute a function over their private inputs without revealing these inputs. Although there exist cryptographic protocols to achieve this‚ their performance often limits them to the two−party case‚ or to a small number of participants. However‚ many real−world applications involve thousands or tens of thousands of participants. Examples of this type of many−party application include privacy−preserving energy metering‚ location−based services‚ and mobile network roaming. Challenging the notion that a trustworthy TTP does not exist‚ recent research has shown how trusted hardware and remote attestation can be used to establish a sufficient level of assurance in a real system such that it can serve as a trustworthy remote entity (TRE). We explore the use of Intel SGX‚ the most recent and arguably most promising trusted hardware technology‚ as the basis for a TRE for many−party applications. Using privacy−preserving energy metering as a case study‚ we design and implement a prototype TRE using SGX‚ and compare its performance to a previous system based on the Trusted Platform Module (TPM). Our results show that even without specialized optimizations‚ SGX provides comparable performance to the optimized TPM system‚ and therefore has significant potential for large−scale many−party applications.

  Details about Exploring the use of Intel SGX for Secure Many−Party Applications | BibTeX data for Exploring the use of Intel SGX for Secure Many−Party Applications | DOI (10.1145/3007788.3007793) | Link to Exploring the use of Intel SGX for Secure Many−Party Applications

• Security and Privacy in Smart Grid Demand Response Systems

  Andrew J Paverd‚ Andrew P Martin and Ian Brown

  In Jorge Cuellar, editor, Smart Grid Security. Pages 1−15. Springer International Publishing. 2014.

  Details about Security and Privacy in Smart Grid Demand Response Systems | BibTeX data for Security and Privacy in Smart Grid Demand Response Systems | Download  (pdf) of Security and Privacy in Smart Grid Demand Response Systems | DOI (10.1007/978-3-319-10329-7_1) | Link to Security and Privacy in Smart Grid Demand Response Systems

• Privacy−Enhanced Bi−Directional Communication in the Smart Grid using Trusted Computing

  Andrew J Paverd‚ Andrew P Martin and Ian Brown

  In Fifth IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid Communications (SmartGridComm 2014). 2014.

  Details about Privacy−Enhanced Bi−Directional Communication in the Smart Grid using Trusted Computing | BibTeX data for Privacy−Enhanced Bi−Directional Communication in the Smart Grid using Trusted Computing | Download Paverd-SmartGridComm-2014.pdf of Privacy−Enhanced Bi−Directional Communication in the Smart Grid using Trusted Computing | Download Paverd-SmartGridComm-2014-slides.pdf of Privacy−Enhanced Bi−Directional Communication in the Smart Grid using Trusted Computing | DOI (10.1109/SmartGridComm.2014.7007758) | Link to Privacy−Enhanced Bi−Directional Communication in the Smart Grid using Trusted Computing