George Corser

Evaluating Location Privacy in Vehicular Communications and Applications

Vehicular ad hoc networks may one day prevent injuries and reduce transportation costs by enabling new safety and traffic management applications, but these networks raise privacy concerns because they could enable applications to perform unwanted surveillance. Researchers have proposed privacy protocols, measuring privacy performance based on metrics such as k-anonymity. Because of the frequency and precision of location of queries in vehicular applications, privacy measurement may be improved by considering additional factors. This paper defines continuous network location privacy; presents KDT-anonymity, which is a composite metric including average anonymity set size, i.e., K, average distance deviation, i.e., D, and anonymity duration, i.e., T; derives formulas to calculate theoretical values of K, D, and T; evaluates five privacy protocols under realistic vehicle mobility patterns using KDT-anonymity; and compares KDT-anonymity with prior metrics.

Endpoint protection zone (EPZ): Protecting LBS user location privacy against deanonymization and collusion in vehicular networks

In vehicular networks when map databases may be used to deanonymize user locations, we propose location based services, LBSs, be designed so that LBS users are grouped by spatial location, into endpoint protection zones, EPZs. Users in the same EPZ would share login credentials, and remain transmission-silent until outside of the EPZ, thus preventing an LBS administrator from knowing which particular user from the EPZ is active - even if the LBS administrator colludes with administrators of roadside units, RSUs. Simulations using realistic vehicle traffic mobility models measure improvements in privacy protection under varying EPZ sizes and vehicle densities.

Effect on vehicle safety of nonexistent or silenced basic safety messages

In future vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs), Basic Safety Messages (BSMs) would be transmitted by all vehicles every 100ms in order to help prevent inter-vehicle crashes. At first not all vehicles would contain the hardware and software necessary to transmit BSMs; there would be an interval when only a percentage of vehicles would transmit. Further, even after all vehicles install the equipment, some privacy researchers recommend silent periods, spans of time during which vehicles deliberately cease transmissions. This is because BSMs may expose vehicle locations to wireless surveillance, and silent periods could thwart eavesdroppers. Whether due to lack of equipment or due to privacy protocols, silent periods would defeat safety provided by BSMs. This paper quantifies this tradeoff, presenting the Safety-Silence Tradeoff Equation, and showing an inverse exponential relationship between the proportion of vehicles transmitting BSMs and the proportion of potential collisions between vehicles unprotected by BSMs.

Properties of Vehicle Network Privacy

ABSTRACT Contemporary automobiles utilize a range of safety devices, such as seatbelts and airbags, to reduce injuries in accidents. Future vehicles, especially autonomous cars, will also utilize computer networks to avoid accidents. These vehicular ad hoc networks, VANETs, may one day save thousands of lives and billions of dollars, reduce fuel consumption and pollution, and expand ubiquitous connectivity and mobile application functionality to the worlds roadways. One problem: privacy. VANETs may expose motorists to surveillance by eavesdroppers, from casual stalkers to Big Brother. The problem has perplexed researchers for decades, perhaps partly because the desired properties of vehicle network privacy have not been sufficiently defined. The purpose of this paper is to provide a taxonomy to classify privacy properties in vehicular contexts.

MAPS: A Multi-Dimensional Password Scheme for Mobile Authentication

It has been long recognized that no silver bullet exists to achieve both security and memorability. With the addition of requirements, the task of designing authentication schemes for mobile devices becomes more challenging. We propose a Multi-dimensionAl Password Scheme (MAPS) for mobile authentication. MAPS fuses information from multiple dimensions to form a password. This fusion enlarges the password space, improves memorability, and enhances usability by reducing the number of gestures needed for authentication. Based on the idea of MAPS, we implement a Chess-based MAPS (CMAPS) for Android systems. Our user studies show that CMAPS can achieve high recall rates while exceeding the security strength of current mobile authentication schemes and exceeding the requirements of banking.

Knowing the Enemy at the Gates: Measuring Attacker Motivation

Traditional cost-benefit analysis CBA quantifies the value of information security safeguards in terms of their expenses compared to their savings before and after their implementation. This paper considers CBA from the attackers viewpoint, adding another type of measurement, the willingness to endure consequences. The authors propose a new set of equations and examine their implications vis-i-vis two typical network attacks, identity theft and intellectual property theft.

Professional association membership of computer and information security professionals

Unlike the computing profession as a whole, the information security profession exhibits two measurable characteristics of older professions, a significant member-to-practitioner ratio in its primary professional association, and a broadly accepted curriculum, as evidenced by its primary certification credential.

A tale of two CTs: IP packets rejected by a firewall

Two distinct curve tendencies (CTs) characterize the flow of IP packets rejected by a firewall from specific source IP addresses. One flow model appears relatively flat and steady over time. The other manifests as a single sharp spike. This study examines a recent real-world firewall log which exhibits these two patterns.