Information‐flow security for concurrent programs: Pitfalls, solutions, and challenges

Date: April 29, 2016
Time: 10:00 - 11:00 
Location: Meeting Room Levico - Polo Scientifico e Tecnologico "Fabio Ferrari" (Edificio Povo 2, Sommarive 9 – Povo, Trento)

Speaker: 
Prof. Heiko Mantel - Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany

Abstract: 
Today's IT‐systems store and process an abundance of data. Some of this data represents private or secret information, and a crucial question is how to ensure that no such information is leaked.
We focus on techniques that establish confidentiality guarantees by controlling the flow of information within IT‐systems. Research on information‐flow security has resulted in an impressive portfolio of program analysis techniques and tools. For sequential programs, these approaches are becoming rather mature, and a good understanding of the resulting, declarative security guarantees has been achieved. For concurrent programs, information‐flow security is more challenging.
The first part of the talk provides an introduction to theory and practice of information‐flow control. The second part clarifies why it is so hard to achieve information‐flow security for concurrent  programs, and discusses recent results from our on‐going research effort to tackle these challenges.

About the speaker:  
Heiko Mantel is a full professor for Computer Science at TU Darmstadt. He worked as a researcher at DFKI in Saarbrucken and received his Ph.D. from Saarland University in 2003. Before joining TU Darmstadt, he was a post‐doctoral researcher at ETH Zurich (2003‐2005) and an assistant professor at RWTH Aachen (2005‐2007). Heiko Mantel spent extended research stays at Chalmers University, Cornell University, and Harvard University.  He is a principal investigator of CASED, CROSSING, and EC‐SPRIDE.  Since 2010 he leads the national research initiative Reliably Secure Software Systems funded by the DFG.

Contact person regarding this talk: Fabio Massacci, fabio.massacci [at] unitn.it