Hardware-enabled Access Control for the Prime III Voting System using the IBM 4764
Monday, June 16, 2008, 2:00 pm
3129 Shelby Center
Dr. Raquel Hill, Indiana University
Protecting data at rest is a critical computer systems problem. We are often faced with the problem of ensuring that only authorized individuals can access restricted information. Electronic voting systems (EVS) are not immune to data access problems. Current EVS, like Diebold have been shown to use unestablished, insecure techniques for encryption and checksumming. For example, vote records and audit logs were encrypted using a single, hardcoded DES key, which allowed anyone with access to the source code or a program image to extract the key and read and or modify voting records. In addition, ballot definition files were stored in an unencrypted form with no means to verify the integrity of the ballot, thus facilitating ballot tampering and enabling various attacks. In this talk, Dr. Hill will describe how we address data protection and key management issues in PRIME III using IBM's secure, cryptographic co-processor.
Dr. Hill is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Her research interests include developing security protocols and mechanisms for wired and wireless infrastructures. She has specific interests in developing trusted security mechanisms that leverage the use of context in pervasive computing environments. Dr. Hill earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science form the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1991 and 1993 respectively. From 1993 to 1996, she was a Member of Scientific Staff at Nortel Networks in RTP, North Carolina. In November, 2002, she received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Harvard University. Dr. Hill was a Lecturer in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech from November 2002 to August 2003. From August 2003 to July 2005, she was a Post Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with a joint appointment with the Department of Computer Science and the National Center for Super Computing Applications (NCSA).
