[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 38 (Friday, February 25, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10627-10628]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-4272]
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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Assumption Buster Workshop: Trust Anchors Are Invulnerable
AGENCY: The National Coordination Office (NCO) for the Networking and
Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program.
ACTION: Call for participation.
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SUMMARY: The NCO, on behalf of the Special Cyber Operations Research
and Engineering (SCORE) Committee, an interagency working group that
coordinates cyber security research activities in support of national
security systems, is seeking expert participants in a day-long workshop
on the pros and cons of the use and implementation of trust anchors.
The workshop will be held April 27, 2011 in the Savage, MD area.
Applications will be accepted until 5 p.m. EST March 18, 2011. Accepted
participants will be notified by March 30, 2011.
DATES: Workshop: April 27, 2011; Deadline: March 18, 2011. Apply via e-
mail to assumptionbusters@nitrd.gov. Travel expenses will be paid for
selected participants who live more than 50 miles from Washington, DC,
up to the limits established by Federal Government travel regulations
and restrictions.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: assumptionbusters@nitrd.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Overview: This notice is issued by the National Coordination Office
for the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development
(NITRD) Program on behalf of the SCORE Committee.
Background: There is a strong and often repeated call for research
to provide novel cyber security solutions. The rhetoric of this call is
to elicit new solutions that are radically different from existing
solutions. Continuing research that achieves only incremental
improvements is a losing proposition. We are lagging behind and need
technological leaps to get, and keep, ahead of adversaries who are
themselves rapidly improving attack technology. To answer this call, we
must examine the key assumptions that underlie current security
architectures. Challenging those assumptions both opens up the
possibilities for novel solutions that are rooted in a fundamentally
different understanding of the problem and provides an even stronger
basis for moving forward on those assumptions that are well-founded.
The SCORE Committee is conducting a series of four workshops to begin
the assumption buster process. The assumptions that underlie this
series are that cyber space is an adversarial domain, that the
adversary is tenacious, clever, and capable, and that re-examining
cyber security solutions in the context of these assumptions will
result in key insights that will lead to the novel solutions we
desperately need. To ensure that our discussion has the requisite
adversarial flavor, we are inviting researchers who develop solutions
of the type under discussion, and researchers who exploit these
solutions. The goal is to engage in robust debate of topics generally
believed to be true to determine to what extent that claim is
warranted. The adversarial nature of these debates is meant to ensure
the threat environment is reflected in the discussion in order to
elicit innovative research concepts that will have a greater chance of
having a sustained positive impact on our cyber security posture.
The second topic to be explored in this series is ``Trust Anchors
are Invulnerable.'' The workshop on this topic will be held in the
Savage, MD area on April 27, 2011.
Assertion: ``Trust anchors are invulnerable thus users who
faithfully deploy reliable trust anchors can be confident that they are
immune from the attacks.''
This assertion underlies significant cyber security research and
development that is aimed at developing and implementing invulnerable
trust anchors, security keystones that cannot be circumvented, and that
assure that trust in a system is well grounded. Numerous trust anchors
are proffered at different levels of assurance and for different
aspects of the system. Platform trust is assured by
[[Page 10628]]
the Trusted Platform Module. Trusted authentication is provided by
tokens. The padlock on the browser assures we can trust web
interactions since they are protected by SSL. Close-held keys and
strong key management systems assure cryptographic trust.
At the workshop we will explore what assurances these trust anchors
do and do not provide, what they depend upon, how they do or do not
interact with the rest of the system, how they typically fail, and what
needs to be addressed to enable effective use of them.
How To Apply
If you would like to participate in this workshop, please submit
(1) a resume or curriculum vita of no more than two pages which
highlights your expertise in this area and (2) a one-page paper stating
your opinion of the assertion and outlining your key thoughts on the
topic. The workshop will accommodate no more than 60 participants, so
these brief documents need to make a compelling case for your
participation. Applications should be submitted to
assumptionbusters@nitrd.gov no later than 5 p.m. EST on March 18, 2011.
Selection and Notification: The SCORE committee will select an
expert group that reflects a broad range of opinions on the assertion.
Accepted participants will be notified by e-mail no later than March
30, 2011. We cannot guarantee that we will contact individuals who are
not selected, though we will attempt to do so unless the volume of
responses is overwhelming.
Submitted by the National Science Foundation for the National
Coordination Office (NCO) for Networking and Information Technology
Research and Development (NITRD) on February 22, 2011.
Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation.
[FR Doc. 2011-4272 Filed 2-24-11; 8:45 am]
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