Applying to SaTC: Successes and Failures at University of Illinois

Successes and Failures applying to SaTC/TWC/TC/CT Nikita Borisov University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign

My SaTC Experience First PI experience in 2006 Four funded projects through some version of SaTC Vulnerability signatures in intrusion detection Security and privacy in building automation Network traffic analysis Anonymous communications (CAREER) About as many rejections Half dozen panels

Vulnerability Signatures Traditional signatures in intrusion detection: recognize attack E.g., AAAA .AAAA?idapi.ida for CodeRed Too specific: CodeRed II used NNNN .NNNN?idapi.ida Vulnerability signatures: recognize attack vector Challenge: faithfully reconstruct application parsing state with high performance

Behind the Proposal Genesis: internship at Microsoft Research as graduate student Development: Identify basic research challenges Create evaluation strategy Collaboration: Two senior co-PIs / mentors

Building Automation Newer buildings use networked sensors and controls for lights, doors, HVAC, etc. Opportunity for applications that enrich inhabitants lives Woefully insecure Challenge: design interface that enables applications while preserving important privacy and security constraints

Behind the Proposal Genesis: Class project on applications for building automation Development: Identify general principles that can be applied in this setting Collaboration: My co-instructor in the course

Traffic Analysis Encrypted network traffic contains patterns: packet sizes, timings, counts, Side channel that reveals information User identity Password characters Web page content VoIP phrases Challenge: Rigorous, systematic understanding of attacks and defenses

Behind the Proposal Genesis: Attack paper on network watermarking schemes Development: Identify several important problems Formulate fundamental theoretic questions Connect them to experimental validation plan Collaboration: Co-author from attack paper Another communications expert Senior mentor

Anonymous Communications Internet communication leaks metadata about interests, relationships, behavior, etc. This information is (ab)used by ISPs, employers, advertisers, intelligence agencies, repressive regimes, Anonymity networks, such as Tor help protect metadata, but at a large performance cost Challenge: creating scalable, high-performance overlay networks while minimizing leaked information

Behind the Proposal Genesis: PhD work, followed by several years of research Development: Detailed description of next few research papers Collaboration: Support letters from foreign collaborator

Lessons from Rejections SaTC panelists are notorious skeptics! Your job to convince them your approach will work and be secure Missing related work can be a killer Spend twice as much time as you think you need Avoid being too broad

Closing Thoughts Get thee on a panel! Can t beat first-hand experience PMs often struggle to fill slots Get co-PIs with prior SaTC successes Can be helpful even at a low commitment level Enjoy the experience! Even unfunded proposals have payoffs