Securing Spontaneous Interactions in Mobile/Ubiquitous Computing

Speaker: Tim Kindberg

20th April 2004 , 2pm , Room 519, Claremont Tower

Abstract

A key problem in mobile and ubiquitous computing is that of setting up associations between pairs (or larger groups) of devices so that they may communicate securely over a wireless network. For example, suppose I send a photograph over a local wireless connection from my phone or PDA to a printer when visiting my friend's house. How can I conveniently ensure that the neighbours cannot access it? It is particularly important to be able to solve this general problem for associations in spontaneous circumstances. The interaction should not depend on preexisting security values such as certificates; moreover, the user establishes trust dynamically in some parts of their environment but not others, and the main reliable means of identifying the (trusted) target device is physical. This talk concerns protocols for constructing and validating secure spontaneous associations based on physical evidence. I shall present our first protocols, which were predicated on special hardware, and more recent work to eliminate that requirement. The problem description and much of the techniques should be broadly understandable by a general audience, but the talk will contain technical material. Speaker Bio: Tim Kindberg has been a senior researcher at HP Labs for four years, initially in Palo Alto and since September 2003 in Bristol. His research interests include ubiquitous computing systems, distributed systems, and human factors. Recent research addresses support for users to navigate between physical and virtual artefacts -- in particular, the Pulp Computing project investigates the integration of paper artefacts into personal and inter-personal computing environments. He is also investigating use-models and protocols for secure content exchange between ubiquitous devices. He was formerly a senior lecturer in Computer Science at Queen Mary, University of London. Before that, his PhD research led to start-up Zebra Parallel, which marketed an operating system for adaptively parallel programs. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Westminster and a BA in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge. He is co-author of the textbook 'Distributed Systems -- Concepts & Design'.