Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0567263
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$82,831.00
Summary
Development of Tool Interfaces and Data Standards for Enabling Remote Secondary Analysis of Qualitative Data. This proposal will promote sharing and rapid secondary analysis of natural language and other qualitative data by providing interface standards between qualitative analysis systems, and will enhance the integration of analytic methods through improved archiving. This will be achieved by the construction and dissemination of open standards for the efficient, flexible transport and storage ....Development of Tool Interfaces and Data Standards for Enabling Remote Secondary Analysis of Qualitative Data. This proposal will promote sharing and rapid secondary analysis of natural language and other qualitative data by providing interface standards between qualitative analysis systems, and will enhance the integration of analytic methods through improved archiving. This will be achieved by the construction and dissemination of open standards for the efficient, flexible transport and storage of annotation metadata, along with demonstrated implementations of these standards in qualitative tools. At the current stage of development of e-Social Science, the provision of middleware for collaborative work is more important than large-scale computational capability. The initiative will leverage existing ARC investment in qualitative data archiving.Read moreRead less
Ultimately Trusted Security through Human-Powered Cryptography. Cryptography offers wonderful tools for unbreakable data security, but only between computer nodes, leaving their human owners helpless. Encrypted tunnels terminate not at humans but at mobile phones and personal computers, exposing users' secrets to spyware from search-engine keyloggers to full-bore malware planted by crooks, hackers, and foreign spy agencies. This project aims to create a simple and strong cryptography, so that hu ....Ultimately Trusted Security through Human-Powered Cryptography. Cryptography offers wonderful tools for unbreakable data security, but only between computer nodes, leaving their human owners helpless. Encrypted tunnels terminate not at humans but at mobile phones and personal computers, exposing users' secrets to spyware from search-engine keyloggers to full-bore malware planted by crooks, hackers, and foreign spy agencies. This project aims to create a simple and strong cryptography, so that humans can, for the first time, take front seat in real security protocols. The technical challenge is to build public-key ciphers, operable manually from a mental key in seconds, and from there remake human-powered versions of many useful information security protocols.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
Specifications, Proofs and Animations for Cryptographic Protocols. Cryptographic protocols are fundamental security tools for electronic communications. Despite years of intensive research it remains difficult to obtain high confidence in the security of almost any new protocol. Research in the computer security community has emphasised formal specifications and state based searching, while the cryptographic community has concentrated instead on complexity theoretic proofs. This project will un ....Specifications, Proofs and Animations for Cryptographic Protocols. Cryptographic protocols are fundamental security tools for electronic communications. Despite years of intensive research it remains difficult to obtain high confidence in the security of almost any new protocol. Research in the computer security community has emphasised formal specifications and state based searching, while the cryptographic community has concentrated instead on complexity theoretic proofs. This project will unify these two approaches for the first time by formally specifying and animating the very models used in cryptographic proofs. The result will be proofs that are uniquely accessible to practioners combined with increased confidence that the proofs are both correct and relevant.Read moreRead less
Post-Quantum Functional Encryption : Principles, Protocols and Practice. Modern cryptography has the power to revolutionise virtually every aspect of our online lives. Large-scale secure data sharing could become a breeze, with tools such as functional encryption (FE) to give us fine control over access rights by means of expressive languages, and there will be no more juggling of crypto keys. Finally, the known foundations of FE will crumble when even small-sized quantum computers become realit ....Post-Quantum Functional Encryption : Principles, Protocols and Practice. Modern cryptography has the power to revolutionise virtually every aspect of our online lives. Large-scale secure data sharing could become a breeze, with tools such as functional encryption (FE) to give us fine control over access rights by means of expressive languages, and there will be no more juggling of crypto keys. Finally, the known foundations of FE will crumble when even small-sized quantum computers become reality, perhaps next decade. This project aims to recreate and expand the power of FE from post-quantum (PQ) mathematical principles, immune to quantum attacks, building on recent discoveries of limited forms of PQ-FE from rock-solid crypto principles. It begs exploring, for the truly spectacular outcomes likely to ensue.Read moreRead less
Enabling Anonymity and Privacy for Blockchain Technology in a Quantum World. Blockchain is a promising technology in the digital world today. However, existing approaches for enabling blockchain applications, particularly with privacy protection and anonymity, are vulnerable to quantum computer attacks. This project aims to enable novel cryptographic mechanisms together with their cryptographic libraries for protecting blockchain in the quantum world, hence, post-quantum secure blockchain. The e ....Enabling Anonymity and Privacy for Blockchain Technology in a Quantum World. Blockchain is a promising technology in the digital world today. However, existing approaches for enabling blockchain applications, particularly with privacy protection and anonymity, are vulnerable to quantum computer attacks. This project aims to enable novel cryptographic mechanisms together with their cryptographic libraries for protecting blockchain in the quantum world, hence, post-quantum secure blockchain. The expected outcomes of this project include innovative technologies, as well as secure and practical post-quantum protocols for protecting future blockchain applications. This will provide economic and social benefits to Australian industry through the enablement of advanced technologies which are developed in Australia.Read moreRead less
Security Applications of Combinatorial Puzzles. This project provides a basis for improving the implementation and maintenance of key management systems. The application of discrete mathematics to information security will help safeguard Australia, will provide opportunities for Australians to take a leading role in an important area and will develop a research network, bridging both theoretical and practical aspects of mathematics and computer science. The project will enhance Australia's inter ....Security Applications of Combinatorial Puzzles. This project provides a basis for improving the implementation and maintenance of key management systems. The application of discrete mathematics to information security will help safeguard Australia, will provide opportunities for Australians to take a leading role in an important area and will develop a research network, bridging both theoretical and practical aspects of mathematics and computer science. The project will enhance Australia's international reputation by establishing collaborations with well-respected international mathematicians and computer scientists. The proposal contains topics suitable for the training of new graduates, allowing them to make high quality original research contributions in a novel and important area. Read moreRead less
Timed Commitment Schemes to Smooth Internet Bottlenecks, Defend against Denial of Service Attacks, and Bypass Some Legal Problems of Enccryption. Bottlenecks on the Internet and Denial of Service attacks on a server are both caused by excessive demands made on a system. This proposal is to reduce the ill-effects of either by building on our previous theoretical work on strongboxes of combinatorial designs. In the case of bottlenecks, the demands are legitimate but badly timed, and our approach ....Timed Commitment Schemes to Smooth Internet Bottlenecks, Defend against Denial of Service Attacks, and Bypass Some Legal Problems of Enccryption. Bottlenecks on the Internet and Denial of Service attacks on a server are both caused by excessive demands made on a system. This proposal is to reduce the ill-effects of either by building on our previous theoretical work on strongboxes of combinatorial designs. In the case of bottlenecks, the demands are legitimate but badly timed, and our approach will redistribute the demands more evenly. In the case of Denial of Service attacks, the demands are malicious, and our approach will respond in such a way as to deplete the resources of the attacker.Read moreRead less