Privacy in Genetic Databases. With the recent advances in genetic and computer technology enormous databases containing genetic information have become available for research and other purposes. An example of such databases is the Icelandic Health Database containing health and genetic records about the total population of Iceland. This has raised many privacy and ethical questions both among health professionals and the general public. Many agree that genetic information bears more ethical and ....Privacy in Genetic Databases. With the recent advances in genetic and computer technology enormous databases containing genetic information have become available for research and other purposes. An example of such databases is the Icelandic Health Database containing health and genetic records about the total population of Iceland. This has raised many privacy and ethical questions both among health professionals and the general public. Many agree that genetic information bears more ethical and privacy concerns than other health databases. In this project we shall investigate privacy and ethical issues connected to genetic information and we develop techniques to prevent a disclosure of individual values through statistical analysis.Read moreRead less
Practical Identity-Based Cryptography: Efficient and Secure Elliptic Curve Pairings. Bilinear pairings on elliptic curves are a new cryptographic tool and allow novel and improved applications in information security. For example, they have been proposed as a substitute of existing public key infrastructures, an essential element in electronic commerce and a secure Internet. The research will lead to an increase in fundamental knowledge in the area of practical implementation and secure applic ....Practical Identity-Based Cryptography: Efficient and Secure Elliptic Curve Pairings. Bilinear pairings on elliptic curves are a new cryptographic tool and allow novel and improved applications in information security. For example, they have been proposed as a substitute of existing public key infrastructures, an essential element in electronic commerce and a secure Internet. The research will lead to an increase in fundamental knowledge in the area of practical implementation and secure applications of pairings. The results will benefit all users of electronic communications who require security for their information. This includes the financial industries, government, commerce and domestic users. It will also support many new product opportunities aligned with Motorola's business markets.Read moreRead less
Analysis and classification of malicious code. Malicious software such as viruses and worms directly attacks the security, privacy and integrity of Australian e-commerce, large databases and communication channels. The recent uptake of malicious software by organised crime has made finding effective countermeasures more urgent. Around 80% of the malicious code in circulation is disguised in some way. This significantly increases the difficulty of automated detection and delays analysis. Automate ....Analysis and classification of malicious code. Malicious software such as viruses and worms directly attacks the security, privacy and integrity of Australian e-commerce, large databases and communication channels. The recent uptake of malicious software by organised crime has made finding effective countermeasures more urgent. Around 80% of the malicious code in circulation is disguised in some way. This significantly increases the difficulty of automated detection and delays analysis. Automated classification and de-obfuscation technologies are a precondition to applying more sophisticated detection heuristics. The project will be instrumental in safeguarding Australia by protecting critical infrastructure and defending us from online organised crime and information warfare.Read moreRead less
Secure and Efficient Electronic Auctions. For the first time in history electronic commerce promises the possibility of auctions to decide the correct market price for a widespread variety of everyday goods and services. Security and efficiency are critical factors in making this a reality, but almost all the many protocols for secure auctions proposed to date suffer from extreme computational requirements. This project will develop efficient and secure auction protocols using innovative approac ....Secure and Efficient Electronic Auctions. For the first time in history electronic commerce promises the possibility of auctions to decide the correct market price for a widespread variety of everyday goods and services. Security and efficiency are critical factors in making this a reality, but almost all the many protocols for secure auctions proposed to date suffer from extreme computational requirements. This project will develop efficient and secure auction protocols using innovative approaches based on advanced cryptographic techniques. In particular we will pioneer the exploration of secure microauctions suitable for negotiating the price of small value goods and utilities in almost real time.Read moreRead less
Cryptographic Protocols: Proofs and Designs. Cryptographic protocols are the foundation for protection of the critical electronic communications infrastructure on which much of commerce and industry rely. They will increasingly be required in emerging technologies such as ad-hoc wireless networks and sensor networks. This project will provide the ability to design new and efficient protocols with a mathematical guarantee of security. The resulting practical protocols will benefit all users of el ....Cryptographic Protocols: Proofs and Designs. Cryptographic protocols are the foundation for protection of the critical electronic communications infrastructure on which much of commerce and industry rely. They will increasingly be required in emerging technologies such as ad-hoc wireless networks and sensor networks. This project will provide the ability to design new and efficient protocols with a mathematical guarantee of security. The resulting practical protocols will benefit all users of electronic communications who require security for their information. This includes the financial industries, government, commerce and domestic users.Read moreRead less
Cryptographic Protocols from Pairings: Proofs and Designs. Modern society has become critically dependent on information and communications infrastructures. At the same time, the development of e-commerce is being slowed by lack of confidence in its security. By providing increased assurance and enhanced cryptographic security protocols this research will improve the dependability of the nation's information and communications infrastructure, as well as encourage the growth of e-commerce. Throu ....Cryptographic Protocols from Pairings: Proofs and Designs. Modern society has become critically dependent on information and communications infrastructures. At the same time, the development of e-commerce is being slowed by lack of confidence in its security. By providing increased assurance and enhanced cryptographic security protocols this research will improve the dependability of the nation's information and communications infrastructure, as well as encourage the growth of e-commerce. Through the expertise and experience gained with this project, Australia's excellence in information security research will be reinforced. The training of PhD and Honours students will provide a much needed source of highly trained information security professionals.Read moreRead less
Investigations Into New Public Key Systems. Public key cryptography is now mainstream technology and an essential tool in electronic business. In order to go beyond the basic security services of confidentiality and authentication, additional features are now desirable, such as verifiability of encryption, distributed key generation, and group-oriented encryption and signatures. At the same time the increasing demand for mobile business requires public key implementations with minimal computatio ....Investigations Into New Public Key Systems. Public key cryptography is now mainstream technology and an essential tool in electronic business. In order to go beyond the basic security services of confidentiality and authentication, additional features are now desirable, such as verifiability of encryption, distributed key generation, and group-oriented encryption and signatures. At the same time the increasing demand for mobile business requires public key implementations with minimal computational and storage demands. This project will study five recently proposed public key algorithms and assess their suitability for various secure applications. These results are of significant potential value in Australia's electronic commerce market.Read moreRead less
Security for Wireless Mobile Ad hoc Networks. Mobile ad hoc networks, a new emerging wireless networking paradigm, poses challenging problems in security, due to its dynamic nature and lack of centralised infrastructure, for which no adequate solutions exist today. This research addresses theory and design of secure mobile ad hoc networks. It achieves conceptual advances in terms of new security models for distributed location management, mobile authentication and multicasting; it proposes nove ....Security for Wireless Mobile Ad hoc Networks. Mobile ad hoc networks, a new emerging wireless networking paradigm, poses challenging problems in security, due to its dynamic nature and lack of centralised infrastructure, for which no adequate solutions exist today. This research addresses theory and design of secure mobile ad hoc networks. It achieves conceptual advances in terms of new security models for distributed location management, mobile authentication and multicasting; it proposes novel dynamic group key management and denial of service protection schemes, develops new security mechanisms for ad hoc routing, provides new insights into formal reasoning of security and demonstrates and evaluates practical secure wireless mobile applications.Read moreRead less
Design of Secure Electronic Voting Systems. It is inevitable that electronic voting will eventually replace current paper based voting schemes. The main outcome of the research will be the fundamental knowledge required to develop secure electronic voting schemes. The security aspects of the design will be thoroughly analysed to ensure that the integrity of the ballot is maintained without compromising user privacy. The practical aspects of implementing such a system will also be investigated ....Design of Secure Electronic Voting Systems. It is inevitable that electronic voting will eventually replace current paper based voting schemes. The main outcome of the research will be the fundamental knowledge required to develop secure electronic voting schemes. The security aspects of the design will be thoroughly analysed to ensure that the integrity of the ballot is maintained without compromising user privacy. The practical aspects of implementing such a system will also be investigated and a prototype implementation provided. The project will combine the expertise in electronic voting schemes at QUT with that of Dr Lee.Read moreRead less
Secure Electronic Voting with Flexible Ballot Structure. It is inevitable that electronic voting will eventually replace current paper based voting schemes. Despite considerable research no secure solution is available for an electronic voting scheme allowing complex election rules, such as preferential voting used in Australia. The main outcome of the research will be the fundamental knowledge required to develop general secure and flexible electronic voting schemes. The security aspects of the ....Secure Electronic Voting with Flexible Ballot Structure. It is inevitable that electronic voting will eventually replace current paper based voting schemes. Despite considerable research no secure solution is available for an electronic voting scheme allowing complex election rules, such as preferential voting used in Australia. The main outcome of the research will be the fundamental knowledge required to develop general secure and flexible electronic voting schemes. The security aspects of the design will be thoroughly analysed to ensure that the integrity of the ballot is maintained without compromising user privacy. The practical aspects of implementing such a system will also be investigated and a prototype implementaion provided.Read moreRead less