Privacy, Security, and Trust

Studying the intersection of privacy, security, and trust with information systems

Researchers Working in this Area

Related Research Projects

Bringing Verification-Aware Languages and Federated Authentication to Enable Secure Computing for a NSF’s Scientific Community

Time frame
2023-Present
Investigator
Anita Nikolich
Total funding to date
$100,000.00
Funding agency
National Science Foundation

This project will enable trusted computing for flagship cyberinfrastructures and their vibrant scientific communities. The project will bring verification-aware languages to provide rigorous mathematical proofs that existing federated authentication implementations are correct, and make rigorous verification an integral part of developing distributed computational science.

security written out with code on a computer

CAREER: Inclusive Privacy: Effective Privacy Management for People with Visual Impairments

Time frame
2019-Present
Investigator
Yang Wang
Total funding to date
$255,203.00
Funding agency
National Science Foundation

Privacy or security mechanisms are usually designed with the generic population in mind. As such, they often fall short of supporting many under-studied or marginalized sub-populations, such as children, older adults, people with disabilities, activists, journalists, victims of crimes or domestic violence, and people from non-western or developing countries. The goal of this project is to…

inclusive privacy

Cyber Risk Assessment for Threatened Environments (CRATE)

Time frame
2020-Present
Investigator
Eunice E. Santos
Total funding to date
$225,000.00
Funding agency
Securboration

Cyber warfare is fought today on an asymmetric battlefield in which the odds are often stacked in favor of an agile and anonymous adversary. Existing defensive technologies such as antivirus, intrusion detection, and code hardening toolchains can only partially level the fields. CRATE provides new tools and techniques to extract real-time human-actionable intelligence about the mission-level…

hand on keyboard

Deception Awareness and Resilience Training (DART)

Time frame
2022-2025
Investigator
Anita Nikolich
Total funding to date
$200,000.00
Funding agency
National Science Foundation

As one of the most vexing problems of the century, we are witnessing the escalating speed, scale, and level of sophistication of online deception (spear phishing and catfishing scams, personal information hunting schemes, fake content, impersonation, and disinformation on social media) that have severe consequences (ransomware attack, financial loss, and breach of private information). The…

DART on monitor and apps

Detecting, Characterizing, Tracking and Forecasting Rare Events in Multi-Sourced Networks: An Application in Analyzing Isolated Malicious Activities

Time frame
2019-2020
Investigator
Jingrui He
Total funding to date
$163,145.00
Funding agency
Arizona State University

This project targets the challenging problem of combating diverse Isolated, Malicious Activities (IMAs), or "lone wolf" attacks, such as homegrown violent extremist attacks. Although IMAs seem completely isolated from one another, without outside direction or communication, IMAs share some common traits when examined under the proper lens (e.g., from the right/relevant data sources, in the…

networks

Enhancing the Cyber Security Workforce—The Human Angle

Time frame
2013-2016
Investigator
Masooda Bashir
Total funding to date
$161,708.00
Funding agency
National Science Foundation

The United States is a world leader in technological innovation. However, as our technology has advanced, the need for cyber security experts has increased dramatically. Unfortunately, the U.S. lacks the cyber security workforce needed to manage many of the threats our society faces.

One method used to attract talented individuals to careers in cyber security has been the…

I-Corps: Beacon-Enabled Smart Location-Based Service

Time frame
2019-Present
Investigator
Yun Huang
Total funding to date
$30,524.00
Funding agency
National Science Foundation

This I-Corps project will identify the commercial potential for using Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacon technology to provide new and low-cost location-based services. A BLE beacon actively broadcasts Bluetooth signals, which can be received by nearby Bluetooth-enabled smartphones. Thus, mobile applications can leverage the beacons that are installed at different locations to detect people's…

I Corps

Illinois Cyber Security Scholars Program Renewal 2019

Time frame
2019-2025
Investigator
Masooda Bashir
Total funding to date
$4,000,000.00
Funding agency
National Science Foundation

Securing cyberspace is one of the most significant challenges confronting our society today. This award to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) will build on the Illinois Cyber Security Scholars Program (ICSSP). The initial program recruited, prepared, and placed top-notch undergraduate level engineers into the government’s cybersecurity workforce. With this renewal, ICSSP…

stack of computer monitors

Internet Sensor Network Testbeds

Time frame
2024-2026
Investigator
Anita Nikolich
Total funding to date
$20,000.00
Funding agency
National Science Foundation

Monitoring ground motion caused by human activity (e.g. ships, rail and vehicular traffic, explosions, civil infrastructure), biological activity (e.g. marine and terrestrial animal migrations and behavior), and natural disasters (e.g. earthquakes, tsunamis, lightning) is critical for research, public safety, and security. The key considerations for sensors used in these monitoring…

globe and streams of light

Novel Algorithms and Tools for Empowering People Who Are Blind to Safeguard Private Visual Content

Time frame
2021-2025
Investigator
Yang Wang
Total funding to date
$315,931.00
Funding agency
National Science Foundation

People who are blind regularly use personal devices to take pictures and videos and share them with others. However, they often have no easy or independent means of assessing whether an image or video they are about to share inadvertently contains private information. For this project, an interdisciplinary team will design and evaluate an automated assistant that alerts users of privacy…

glasses with camera lens

NSF Convergence Accelerator: A Disinformation Range to Improve User Awareness and Resilience to Online Disinformation

Time frame
2021-2022
Investigator
Anita Nikolich
Total funding to date
$135,000.00
Funding agency
National Science Foundation

As one of the most vexing problems of the century, we are witnessing the escalating speed, scale, and level of sophistication of online deception (spear phishing and catfishing scams, personal information hunting schemes, fake content, impersonation, and disinformation on social media) that have severe consequences (ransomware attack, financial loss, and breach of private information). The…

hands of an elderly person by a keyboard

Securing our Public Libraries: A Forum on Privacy and Security

Time frame
2020-Present
Investigator
Masooda Bashir
Total funding to date
$150,000.00
Funding agency
Institute of Museum and Library Services

The grant will support a National Forum on privacy and security, enabling experts to collaborate with public library representatives in an exploratory study to gather, learn, and discuss what technological mechanisms are currently in place to protect the nation’s public library patrons’ privacy. More specifically, this project seeks to identify the existence or absence of privacy…

privacy

Security architecture and policies for broadening access to research computing (SPARC)

Time frame
2024-2026
Investigator
Anita Nikolich
Total funding to date
$600,000.00
Funding agency
National Science Foundation

The ACCORD cyberinfrastructure project at the University of Virginia successfully developed and deployed a community infrastructure providing access to secure research computing resources for users at under-served, minority-serving, and non-PhD-granting institutions. ACCORD is built around balancing security with accessibility. While the ACCORD expedition achieved its technical and operational…

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