Distributed and Embedded Security research group
The faculties of the University of Twente
are primarily responsible for teaching, whereas the institutes of the
University are primarily responsible for research. Faculties are divided into
departments, which are divided further into research groups. These research
groups are also the smallest unit of organisation within the institutes.
The Distributed and Embedded Security
research group is one of the research groups of the
Faculty of Electrical Engineering,
Mathematics and Computer Science, its
Department of Computer Science and
the Centre for Telematics and Information
Technology.
DIES is a member of the National graduate school
Institute for Programming research and
Algorithmics. DIES leads the
Security Research at the
University of Twente
What do we do?
Our research focuses on the analysis and design of
distributed and .
These are complex, , networked
systems that operate in often environments, and under severe
.
We are primarily interested in security properties.
Our teaching focuses on the security related courses of the computer
science curriculum. For example at bachelor level we teach algebra &
security, and operating systems, and at master level we teach the
introduction to computer security.
Why do we focus on security?
Our interest in stems from the fact that
security is important for applications but very delicate. For example only one
leak is sufficient to spoil the security of a system. It is therefore
imperative to control the security properties of all
components of a system. This is hard because (1) there might be a large
number of components, and (2) we do not even know all the components of a
system that interacts with the outside world. Interaction with the world
around occurs, for example when people are required to use passwords that
are not easy to guess, or when the network is wireless, and thus shares the
airwaves with everybody else.
How do we perform our research?
As in all scientific endeavours we aim to develop clear and concise theories
that can explain the behaviour of our object of study. Distributed and embedded
systems are often so complex that theoretical development must be driven by
experiments. As a basis for experiments we develop models of different types,
for example logical models of security protocols, or simulation models of
network protocols. We use various types of tools to validate these models. To
study we use such as SPIN to help us construct, explore and
.
To study we
use MatLab. A new
generation of model checkers, such as Uppaal supports the analysis of both
qualitative and quantitative aspects, particularly timing. Where necessary we
build our own tools such as
CoProve for security protocol
verification. As always the proof of the pudding is in the
eating, so we build prototypes of systems to validate our models, which more
often than not leads to a complete overhaul of the models until after a number
of iterations, when we are satisfied that we have gained a deep understanding
of the system under investigation. Since modelling is central to our work we
are also investigating methods for systematic and effective model construction.
What about applications?
We target our work at a variety of applications, ranging from smart guns,
via smart surroundings to smart homes and vehicles. The smartness in each case
refers to a specific property of the application that somehow improves the application
far beyond what is possible today. For example a smart gun is smart because it
will recognise the rightful owner. This means that if a gun is lost, stolen
or wrestled out of the hands of the owner, it will simply refuse to fire.
Our surroundings are smart when they anticipate on, and contribute to the
activities of the people in these surroundings. For example, when sensors in
a building can detect changes in environmental conditions such as
temperature, and humidity to which the system can react adequately.
Who are the people working in the group?
The research staff and students of the group have a
science or engineering background in physics, mathematics, electrical
engineering or computer science. We are an international group; the largest minority is Dutch, with nationals from Bulgaria, China, Georgia, Iran, Italy, Macedonia, Syria, and Turkey. We often have
vacancies for PhD students and PostDocs, and there are always interesting final
year projects for Master students.
Where can you read more?
Our publications page lists all our publications
grouped by research program, by project and by researcher. Our
research page lists the research projects that we are
currently involved in. The
security related projects are coordinated by the CTIT SRO Istrice.
Our teaching page lists the courses that we currently teach.
A set of slides
presenting the DIES group can be found here.
DIES is a security group so we even have a security policy, although at present the policy only applies to University owned laptops.
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