Welcome to the Systems and Internet Infrastructure Security (SIIS) Laboratory in the department of Computer Science and Engineering at Penn State, and member lab of the Network and Security Research Center (NSRC). The SIIS Laboratory develops advanced security technologies for critical components of the modern computing infrastructure. Our researchers consider security problems at all levels of systems design, from theoretical cryptography to physical hardware. Our research has been published in top academic venues in security, networking, operating systems, software engineering, and cryptography, as well as featured in many outlets in popular press.

Awards and Grants

January 29, 2010:

Kevin Butler has been awarded the Penn State Alumni Association Dissertation Award. The award recognizes the work of oustanding PhD students whose dissertation topic has been approved. This award is considered to be amongst the most prestigious available to Penn State graduate students. Kevin's dissertation is titled "Leveraging Emerging Storage Functionality for New Security Services." His research focuses on security issues as they relate to storage systems, large-scale systems architectures, and networks. Congratulations to Kevin!.

December 15, 2009:

The paper "Semantically Rich Application-Centric Security in Android" written by Machigar Ongtang, Stephen McLaughlin, William Enck, and Patrick McDaniel won the best paper award at the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) 2009. Congratulations to the authors of the paper Machigar, Stephen, William, and Professor McDaniel!

November 2, 2009:

The Communication Network Research Center (NSRC) will start a new interdisciplinary research center with approximately $35.5 million in funding over 10 years from the Army Reseach Lab. These new center will be extremely beneficial for both the Center and SIIS lab as one of the Center member research laboratories. Congratulations to the NSRC faculty for this achievement and specially to Professor Adam Smith, SIIS lab faculty, as he is one of the researchers in the new center.

September 15, 2009:

Dr. Patrick McDaniel was awarded two National Science Foundation grants entitled "Security Services in Open Telecomunnications Networks" and "Secure Provenance in High-End Computing Systems". Congratulations Professor McDaniel!. More Information.

September 1, 2009:

Dr. Trent Jaeger was awarded two National Science Foundation grants entitled "Techniques to Retrofit Legacy Code with Security" and "Establishing Integrity in Dynamic Networks of Cyber Physical Devices". Congratulations Professor Jaeger!. More information.

July 9, 2009:

Professor Adam Smith will be receiving the NSF PECASE award from President Obama in a White House ceremony this Fall. "The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) program was established to identify and honor outstanding scientists and engineers that show exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of knowledge". Congratulations to Professor Smith.

April 17, 2009:

Professor Patrick McDaniel received the Outstanding Research Award from the Penn State Engineering Society (PSES).The Penn State Engineering Society Outstanding Research Award recognizes individuals who, by their contributions to knowledge, have brought recognition to themselves, the College, and Penn State. Congratulations to Professor McDaniel. Official Announcement.

News

November 17, 2009:

The paper "On Cellular Botnets: Measuring the impact of Malicious Devices on Cellular Network Core" written by Patrick Traynor, Michael Lin, Machigar Ongtang, Vikhyath Rao, Trent Jager, and Patrick McDaniel, presented at CCS 2009, was featured on New Scientist .

October 20, 2009:

Professor Patrick McDaniel was featured on State College News in a faculty Q&A.

October 20, 2009:

SIIS Lab student, Thomas Moyer, has been selected as a finalist to the CSAW Research Award Committee for his work on Scalable Web Content Attestation. This work studies the reasons why trusted hardware is becoming common in computers, but is seeing little adoption. Below, Tom describes his work: "Current commodity trusted hardware is very slow and as such is not used in high load systems, such as web servers. We have built a system that utilizes commodity trusted hardware to provide attestations of both the system state and the content being served with low overhead. We have integrated this system into a web server, and are currently exploring other systems that will benefit from being able to provide attestation of content and system state." Congratulations Tom.

October 13, 2009:

The Networking and Security Research Center Industry Day was held on 13-14 October, 2009.

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    Mission

    The following mission statement best sums up the activities of the SIIS Laboratory:

    The SIIS Laboratory promotes student and scientific advancement through the investigation of emerging technologies upon which computer, network, and information security is based.

    Credo

    I cannot think of a better statement of how I feel about scientific discovery than the following poem by Bill Watterson. I think it truly reflects the dual promise of both fun and discovery, which I feel should be the real objectives of any scientific endeavor. Put another way, life is simply too short to do work that is not both simultaneously engaging and enjoyable. To wit:

    Explorers are we, intrepid and bold,
    Out in the wild, amongst wonders untold.
    Equipped with our wits, a map, and a snack,
    We're searching for fun we're on the right track!

    - Bill Watterson, Author of Calvin and Hobbes

    Sponsors

    The laboratory is actively seeking sponsorship for its activities. We are receiving or have received support from the following agencies and organizations:


       
       

    Contact Information

    This webpage details the laboratory objectives and past and current research. If you are interested in learning more about the laboratory, current research, or possibilities for sponsorship, please contact the lab directly. All electronic communications should be directed to the laboratory administration at siis@cse.psu.edu. All physical correspondence should be directed to:

    Systems and Internet Infrastructure Laboratory
    Department of Computer Science and Engineering
    The Pennsylvania State University
    344 IST Building
    University Park, PA 16802

    Other laboratory contact information:

    Phone: +1 (814) 863-3599
    Fax: +1 (814) 865-3176
    Web: http://siis.cse.psu.edu/

    Note: Given the large number of applicants, the laboratory must defer all admissions issues to the department of Computer Science and Engineering. Hence, if you are a student looking to be admitted to Penn State University, contact the department directly. If you are already a student at Penn State and wish to participate in SIIS research, please contact one of the faculty members in the lab.