Research yields new way to transmit info securely

In an emergency, whether a natural disaster, fire or terrorist attack, it's crucial that first responders be able exchange rescue information, like floor plans and entrance codes, quickly and securely.

That's where University electrical engineering professor Ruby Lee and graduate student Jeffrey Dwoskin come in. The two researchers have helped develop a computer architecture that allows the secure transmission of important information to rescue personnel.

The new design, Lee said, enables "transient trust" — which is the ability to send sensitive information without fear of interception during an emergency — in such a way that the transmission ends once the receiver no longer needs it.

During a fire, for example, firemen would be granted access to necessary information using a handheld device, but the information would no longer be available to them after the crisis has ended.

Lee, who leads the Princeton Architecture Lab for Multimedia and Security, has long worked on improving computer security by upgrading the hardware rather than the software, but she only recently thought of applying her work to the transmission of rescue information.

With Dwoskin's help, she has incorporated two new features into technology used by first responders. Called the "device root key" and the "storage root hash," the additions are stored on a processor chip to prevent the device from being compromised. Safer software can then be built upon this fundamentally secure hardware.

"It's quite like rooting a tree, where the software is the tree and the hardware is the root which tethers the tree," Lee said. "It is harder for someone to attack hardware than software. They would have to have physical access to the device to attack the hardware."

Dwoskin said this approach to computer security lays new groundwork for future developments. "I think computer security in general is a hard problem that people don't necessarily know how to solve completely," he said. "We think that using new hardware is a good approach and a promising method. This hasn't been exploited in modern computers to the extent it should be."

Emergency response is only one use for the new architecture.

"This is just a step," he said. "It is a solution to a very specific problem. We think it's an important problem, but it is just a piece of the puzzle." He noted that improvements are also needed in home computer security.

Lee, who has been working on general security architecture for several years, said she wants to expand her work to include other security devices. "My goal was to make it safer for ordinary users to use their PDAs or notebook computers without worrying about leaking secret and sensitive information, and without being swamped with viruses and worms," she said.

She noted that devices such as laptops, cell phones and iPods are currently not secure and can inadvertently leak information.

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Dwoskin echoed Lee's hope that their security architecture will be put to more general use in the future.

"I think that the real benefit will come when things like ours will be adopted in personal use — in all cell phones, computers, etc.," he said. "It will be widespread, and people can really start designing software and operating systems that depend on this new hardware."