Welcome to the Systems and Internet Infrastructure Security (SIIS) Laboratory in the department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) 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

October 5, 2011:

Dr. Trent Jaeger was awarded an HP Labs Innovation Research Award for his proposal Towards Mostly-Automatic, System-Wide Integrity Policy Generation. Congratulations to Professor Jaeger!

April 20, 2011:

Professor Smith's graduate student, Abhradeep Guha Thakurta, received the Yahoo 2011 Key Scientific Challenges Program Award. Congratulations to Abhradeep and Professor Smith!

February 2, 2011:

William Enck 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. Congratulations to Will!

July 8, 2010:

Professor Adam Smith has been granted tenure and received promotion to associate professor. Congratulations to Professor Smith!

April 26, 2010:

William Enck has been awarded the CSE Graduate Student Research Assistant Award. The award recognizes Will's dedication and contributions to our Lab. Congratulations to Will!.

  • Awards and Grants Archive

    • News

    August 31, 2011:

    Thomas Moyer passed his doctoral defense. Congratulations to Dr. Moyer for his great work!

    July 15, 2011:

    Sandra Julieta Rueda Rodríguez passed her doctoral defense. Congratulations to Dr. Rueda Rodríguez for her great work!

    July 15, 2011:

    The paper "Protecting Consumer Privacy from Electric Load Monitoring" written by Stephen McLaughlin, Patrick McDaniel, and William Aiello was accepted to the 18th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS) to be held in October 2011.

    April 18, 2011:

    The paper "A Study of Android Application Security" written by William Enck, Damien Octeau, Patrick McDaniel, and Swarat Chaudhuri was accepted to the 20th USENIX Security Symposium to be held in August 2011.

    February 22, 2011:

    William Enck passed his doctoral defense. Congratulations to Dr. Enck for his great work!

    February 14, 2011:

    A Computer and Network Security Certificate Program is now available at Penn State. The goal of this certificate program is to prepare security analysts and researchers to develop and apply advanced security needs of enterprise and personal environments. Additional information: Computer and Network Security Certificate Program.

    September 29, 2010:

    A joint research project by Intel Labs, Penn State, and Duke has found that publicly available cell-phone applications from application markets are releasing consumer's private information to online advertisers. Researchers at these institutions developed a realtime monitoring service called TaintDroid that precisely analyses how private information is obtained and released by applications downloaded to consumer phones. Additional information: Penn State Live, Realtime Privacy Monitoring of Smartphones.

    September 22, 2010:

    Professor Patrick McDaniel has been reappointed as Editor in Chief of the ACM Transactions on Internet Technology (TOIT). Established in the summer of 2001, TOIT is a premiere academic journal in the fields of Internet and Web technologies, and brings together many computing disciplines including computer software engineering, computer programming languages, middleware, database management, security, knowledge discovery and data mining, networking and distributed systems, communications, performance and scalability. Congratulations to Professor McDaniel!

  • News Archive

    • Upcoming Events

    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.