ETH Zurich : Computer Science : Pervasive Computing : Distributed Systems : Research : Security

Security of Smart Collaborating Objects

A Research Topic of the Distributed Systems Group

Security is about the protection of valuable resources. In ubicomp, smart objects are exchanging services with their environment and collaborate with other objects in order to provide services to end users. Interactions of users with real-world objects are accompanied by wireless data exchange between the user's personal objects (integrated in his/her clothing, for example) and the objects in his/her surrounding. Thus, real-world actions are seamlessly reflected by transactions in the virtual space. This offers huge potential for offering novel kinds of services, but as a prerequisite, lots of personal data has to be recorded and processed by numerous devices and background services. The user has a vital interest that malicious devices cannot induce significant damage, for example by spending large amounts of money off the user's account, or by making personal data available to unauthorized parties (which is mainly a privacy problem).

The proliferation of action traces (digital data originating from real-world transactions, stored in undesired places), the execution of unwanted transactions through autonomous computing agents, the misinterpretation of contextual information, and service failure due to erroneous or malicious devices and software are amongst the security threats introduced by ubiquitous computing. These threats arise in the interaction of humans with smart objects, within smart environments, where large numbers of smart devices interact, and in conjunction with novel system architectures such as wireless sensor networks, where devices with low resources are employed to monitor mission-critical environmental features.

The operator of a wireless sensor network wants to make sure that outsiders cannot interfere with the operation of the network or gain access to confidential (or valuable) sensor data. Therefore, security mechanisms have to be implemented that protect the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of the network. Due to their potentially large size, we believe that existing security mechanisms are not always applicable to sensor networks. We therefore concentrate our research on localized protocols and methods for assessing security properties of sensor networks.

See also the following related items:

• UbiComp Implications (topic)

Participating Researchers

Iulia Ion (until 2012), Marc Langheinrich (until 2008), Michael Rohs (until 2005)

Selected Publications

See the Publications of the Distributed Systems Group page for a full listing of our publications.

• Rene Mayrhofer, Jürgen Fuß, Iulia Ion
  UACAP: A Unified Auxiliary Channel Authentication Protocol.
  IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 710-721, 2013
  BibTeX
  
  
• Iulia Ion, Marc Langheinrich, Ponnurangam Kumaraguru and Srdjan Capkun
  Influence of User Perception, Security Needs, and Social Factors on Device Pairing Method Choices.
  Proceedings of the Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS 2010). Redmond, WA, July 2010
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Harald Vogt, Matthias Ringwald, Mario Strasser
  Intrusion Detection and Failure Recovery in Sensor Nodes.
  Tagungsband INFORMATIK 2005, Workshop Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Informatics, Vol. P-68, Gesellschaft für Informatik, pp. 161-163, Bonn, Germany, September 2005
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Harald Vogt
  Small Worlds and the Security of Ubiquitous Computing.
  First International Workshop on Trust, Security and Privacy for Ubiquitous Computing (TSPUC 2005): Proceedings of 6th IEEE International Symposium on a World of Wireless Mobile and Multimedia Networks (WoWMoM 2005). IEEE CS, pp. 593-597, Taormina, Sicily, Italy, June 2005
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Harald Vogt
  Exploring Message Authentication in Sensor Networks.
  Proceedings of ESAS 2004 (1st European Workshop on Security in Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks). LNCS, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany, August 2004
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Harald Vogt
  Integrity Preservation for Communication in Sensor Networks.
  Technical Report No. 434, ETH Zürich, Institute for Pervasive Computing, February 2004
  BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Harald Vogt, Michael Rohs, Roger Kilian-Kehr
  Middleware for Smart Cards.
  In: Qusay H. Mahmoud (Ed.): Middleware for Communications. John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-470-86206-8, 2004
  Abstract, BibTeX
  
  
• Jürgen Bohn, Felix Gärtner, Harald Vogt
  Dependability Issues of Pervasive Computing in a Healthcare Environment.
  In: Dieter Hutter, Günter Müller, Werner Stephan, Markus Ullmann (Eds.): First International Conference on Security in Pervasive Computing. Lecture Notes in Computer Science No. LNCS 2082, Springer-Verlag, pp. 53-70, Boppard, Germany, March 2003
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Jürgen Bohn, Günter Karjoth
  Sicherheitsdienste für mobile Agentenanwendungen.
  In: Killat, Lamersdorf (Eds.): Proc. KIVS 2001. Springer-Verlag, pp. 305-314, February 2001
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Roger Kehr, Michael Rohs, Harald Vogt
  Mobile Code as an Enabling Technology for Service-oriented Smartcard Middleware.
  Proc. 2nd International Symposium on Distributed Objects and Applications DOA'2000. IEEE Computer Society, pp. 119-130, Antwerp, Belgium, September 2000
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Roger Kehr, Michael Rohs, Harald Vogt
  Issues in Smartcard Middleware.
  In: I. Attali, T. Jensen (Eds.): Java on Smart Cards: Programming and Security. LNCS, Vol. 2041, Springer-Verlag, pp. 90-97, 2000
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  

Related Student Projects

The following table lists corresponding student projects in our group. Note that some descriptions will be in German.