R. K. Shyamasundar

Sandip Ghosal, R. K. Shyamasundar

Compile-time information flow analysis has been a promising technique for protecting confidentiality and integrity of private data. In the last couple of decades, a large number of information flow security tools in the form of run-time execution-monitors or static type systems have been developed for programming languages to analyze information flow security policies. However, existing flow analysis tools lack in precision and usability, which is the primary reason behind not being widely adopted in real application development. In this paper, we propose a compile-time information flow analysis for an imperative program based on a hybrid (mutable + immutable) labelling approach that enables a user to detect information flow-policy breaches and modify the program to overcome violations. We have developed an information flow security analyzer for a dialect of Python language, PyX, called Pifthon using the said approach. The flow-analyzer aids in identifying possible misuse of the information in sequential PyX programs corresponding to a given information flow policy (IFP). Pifthon has distinct advantages like reduced labelling overhead that ameliorates usability, covers a wide range of PyX programs that include termination-and progress-sensitive channels, in contrast to other approaches in the literature. The proposed flow analysis is proved to be sound under the classical non-interference property. Further, case study and experience in the usage of Pifthon are provided.

Sandip Ghosal, R. K. Shyamasundar

Realizing flow security in a concurrent environment is extremely challenging, primarily due to non-deterministic nature of execution. The difficulty is further exacerbated from a security angle if sequential threads disclose control locations through publicly observable statements like print, sleep, delay, etc. Such observations lead to internal and external timing attacks. Inspired by previous works that use classical Hoare style proof systems for establishing correctness of distributed (real-time) programs, in this paper, we describe a method for finding information leaks in concurrent programs through the introduction of leaky assertions at observable program points. Specifying leaky assertions akin to classic assertions, we demonstrate how information leaks can be detected in a concurrent context. To our knowledge, this is the first such work that enables integration of different notions of non-interference used in functional and security context. While the approach is sound and relatively complete in the classic sense, it enables the use of algorithmic techniques that enable programmers to come up with leaky assertions that enable checking for information leaks in sensitive applications.

Raj Gaire, Ratan K. Ghosh, Jongkil Kim et al.

Smartness in smart cities is achieved by sensing phenomena of interest and using them to make smart decisions. Since the decision makers may not own all the necessary sensing infrastructures, crowdsourced sensing, can help collect important information of the city in near real-time. However, involving people brings of the risk of exposing their private information.This chapter explores crowdsensing in smart city applications and its privacy implications.

Raj Gaire, Chigulapalli Sriharsha, Deepak Puthal et al.

Disaster management demands a near real-time information dissemina-tion so that the emergency services can be provided to the right people at the right time. Recent advances in information and communication technologies enable collection of real-time information from various sources. For example, sensors deployed in the fields collect data about the environment. Similarly, social networks like Twitter and Facebook can help to collect data from people in the disaster zone. On one hand, inadequate situation awareness in disasters has been identified as one of the primary factors in human errors with grave consequences such as loss of lives and destruction of critical infrastructure. On the other hand, the growing ubiquity of social media and mobile devices, and pervasive nature of the Internet-of-Things means that there are more sources of outbound traffic, which ultimately results in the creation of a data deluge, beginning shortly after the onset of disaster events, leading to the problem of information tsunami. In addition, security and privacy has crucial role to overcome the misuse of the system for either intrusions into data or overcome the misuse of the information that was meant for a specified purpose. .... In this chapter, we provide such a situation aware application to support disaster management data lifecycle, i.e. from data ingestion and processing to alert dissemination. We utilize cloud computing, Internet of Things and social computing technologies to achieve a scalable, effi-cient, and usable situation-aware application called Cloud4BigData.