7607582
Trust enhanced ubiquitous payment without too much privacy loss
Computational models of trust have been proposed for use in ubicomp environments for deciding whether to allow customers to pay with an e-purse or not. In order to build trust in a customer, a means to link transactions using the same e-purse is required. Roughly, trust is a result of knowledge. As the number of transactions increases, the resulting increase in knowledge about the user of the e-purse threatens privacy due to global profiling. We present a scheme (and its prototype) that mitigates this loss of privacy without forbidding the use of trust for smoothing payment by giving the opportunity to the user to divide trust (i.e. transactions) according to context (e.g. location, user's current activity or subset of shops).
14098973
CryptoCache: a secure sharable file cache for roaming users
Small mobile computers are now sufficiently powerful to run many applications, but storage capacity remains limited so working files cannot be cached or stored locally. Even if files can be stored locally, the mobile device is not powerful enough to act as server in collaborations with other users. Conventional distributed file systems cache everything locally or not at all; there is no possibility to cache files on nearby nodes.In this paper we present the design of a secure cache system called CryptoCache that allows roaming users to cache files on untrusted file hosting servers. The system allows flexible sharing of cached files among unauthenticated users, i.e. unlike most distributed file systems CryptoCache does not require a global authentication framework.Files are encrypted when they are transferred over the network and while stored on untrusted servers. The system uses public key cryptography, which allows roaming users to selectively grant read and write access to others by entrusting them with respectively the public key or the private key.
34386518
Privacy Recovery with Disposable Email Addresses
Disposable e-mail address (DEA) services are a privacy recovery mechanism for the growing spam problem. However, this problem is clearly more complex than simply closing DEA; as the rolling e-mail address protocols (REAP) system demonstrates, recovery approaches must accommodate different normal states.
604106
Protection reconfiguration for reusable software
Secure distributed applications often include code to authenticate users, verify access rights, and establish secure communication channels between software components (e.g., clients and servers). This code is often specific to the application and to the context in which the application is used. Embedding protection definitions in the application code makes it difficult to reuse because different applications often have very different protection constraints. We argue that protection definitions should be specified separately from application code in order to facilitate protection reconfiguration and software reuse. This separation may be achieved by specifying protection definitions in a Protection Interface Definition Language, and is implemented by proxies installed between software components that are executing in different protection contexts (e.g., between client and server). Mechanisms for creation and dynamic installation of protection proxies have been implemented in a distributed shared memory system, and the viability of our solution is demonstrated by a simple name server, which is currently being reused in three different protection contexts.
16785661
Partial outsourcing: a new paradigm for access control
Various security models have been proposed in recent years for different purposes. Each of these aims to ease administration by introducing new types of security policies and models. This increases the complexity a system administrator is faced with. Ultimately, the resources expended in choosing amongst all of these models leads to less efficient administration.In this paper, we propose a new access control paradigm, which is already well established in virus and SPAM protection as partial delegation of administration to external expertise centres. Well-known vulnerabilities can be filtered out and known sources of attacks can be automatically blocked. We describe how partial outsourcing can be achieved in a secure way. A framework, which enables this process has already been developed.
7815359
Trust Transfer: Encouraging Self-recommendations Without Sybil Attack
Trading privacy for trust thanks to the linkage of pseudonyms has been proposed to mitigate the inherent conflict between trust and privacy. This necessitates fusionym, that is, the calculation of a unique trust value supposed to reflect the overall trustworthiness brought by the set of linked pseudonyms. In fact, some pieces of evidence may overlap and be overcounted, leading to an incorrect trust value. In this approach, self-recommendations are possible during the privacy/trust trade. However, this means that Sybil attacks, where thousands of virtual identities belonging to the same real-world entity recommend each other, are potentially easier to carry out, as self-recommendations are an integral part of the attack. In this paper, trust transfer is used to achieve safe fusionym and protect against Sybil attacks when pieces of evidence are limited to direct observations and recommendations based on the count of event outcomes. Trust transfer implies that recommendations move some of the trustworthiness of the recommending entity to the trustworthiness of the trustee. It is demonstrated and tailored to email anti-spam settings.
111397
Point-versus interval-based temporal data models
The association of timestamps with various data items such as tuples or attribute values is fundamental to the management of time varying information. Using intervals in timestamps, as do most data models, leaves a data model with a variety of choices for giving a meaning to timestamps. Specifically, some such data models claim to be point based while other data models claim to be interval based. The meaning chosen for timestamps is important it has a pervasive effect on most aspects of a data model, including database design, a variety of query language properties, and query processing techniques, e.g., the availability of query optimization opportunities. The paper precisely defines the notions of point based and interval based temporal data models, thus providing a new formal basis for characterizing temporal data models and obtaining new insights into the properties of their query languages. Queries in point based models treat snapshot equivalent argument relations identically. This renders point based models insensitive to coalescing. In contrast, queries in interval based models give significance to the actual intervals used in the timestamps, thus generally treating non identical, but possibly snapshot equivalent relations differently. The paper identifies the notion of time fragment preservation as the essential defining property of an interval based data model.
8396773
Research issues in clinical data warehousing
Medical informatics has been an important area for the application of computing and database technology for at least four decades. This area may benefit from the functionality offered by data warehousing. However, the special nature of clinical applications poses different and new requirements to data warehousing technologies, over those posed by conventional data warehouse applications. This article presents a number of exciting new research challenges posed by clinical applications, to be met by the database research community. These include the need for complex data modeling features, advanced temporal support, advanced classification structures, continuously valued data, dimensionally reduced data, and the integration of very complex data. In addition, the support for clinical treatment protocols and medical research are interesting areas for research.
7582499
Introduction to special issue with best papers from EDBT 2002
7360842
Effective timestamping in databases
Abstract. Many existing database applications place various timestamps on their data, rendering temporal values such as dates and times prevalent in database tables. During the past two decades, several dozen temporal data models have appeared, all with timestamps being integral components. The models have used timestamps for encoding two specific temporal aspects of database facts, namely transaction time, when the facts are current in the database, and valid time, when the facts are true in the modeled reality. However, with few exceptions, the assignment of timestamp values has been considered only in the context of individual modification statements.This paper takes the next logical step: It considers the use of timestamping for capturing transaction and valid time in the context of transactions. The paper initially identifies and analyzes several problems with straightforward timestamping, then proceeds to propose a variety of techniques aimed at solving these problems. Timestamping the results of a transaction with the commit time of the transaction is a promising approach. The paper studies how this timestamping may be done using a spectrum of techniques. While many database facts are valid until now, the current time, this value is absent from the existing temporal types. Techniques that address this problem using different substitute values are presented. Using a stratum architecture, the performance of the different proposed techniques are studied. Although querying and modifying time-varying data is accompanied by a number of subtle problems, we present a comprehensive approach that provides application programmers with simple, consistent, and efficient support for modifying bitemporal databases in the context of user transactions.
16786487
Computational data modeling for network-constrained moving objects
Advances in wireless communications, positioning technology, and other hardware technologies combine to enable a range of applications that use a mobile user's geo-spatial data to deliver online, location-enhanced services, often referred to as location-based services. Assuming that the service users are constrained to a transportation network, this paper develops data structures that model road networks, the mobile users, and stationary objects of interest. The proposed framework encompasses two supplementary road network representations, namely a two-dimensional representation and a graph representation. These capture aspects of the problem domain that are required in order to support the querying that underlies the envisioned location-based services.