Topic: Trustworthy Data from Untrusted Servers
SPEAKER
Sunil Prabhakar, Purdue http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/sunil/
ABSTRACT
Ensuring the trustworthiness of data retrieved from a database is of utmost importance to users. The correctness of data stored in a database is defined by the faithful execution of only valid (authorized) transactions. In this talk we address the question of whether it is necessary to trust a database server in order to trust the data retrieved from it. The lack of trust arises naturally if the database server is owned by a third party, as in the case of cloud computing. It also arises if the server may have been compromised, or there is a malicious insider.
In particular, we discuss a solution that reduces the level of trust necessary in order to establish the authenticity and integrity of data at an untrusted server. We are particularly interested in the case where multiple, independent entities can legitimately modify the database. The proposed solutions also provide indemnity for an honest server and assured provenance for all updates to the data.
TIME/LOCATION
Friday 2/8/2013, CSE2311, 2:30pm
BIO
Sunil Prabhakar received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1998, and a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Techonology, Delhi in 1990. Since August 1998 he has been with the Department of Computer Science at Purdue University. He is currently serving as the Interim Department Head. Dr. Prabhakar's His main area of research is database systems. He is currently working on developing novel databases for handling uncertain data, and developing solutions that ensure authenticity, integrity and privacy for outsourced databases including cloud databases. In earlier work, he has developed solutions for scalability and efficiency for moving objects and sensor databases, digital rights management for databases through digital watermarking, and ensuring correctness over private databases. Prior to joining Purdue, he held a position with Tata Unisys Ltd. from 1990 to 1994.
