Measuring Internet protocol security (theme)

In the last few years, the research community has been able to provide some highly interesting insights into how secure the Internet really is. This research group has contributed several studies on HTTPS and email security, for example (see publications). But in the grand scheme of things, this is really just the tip of the iceberg. There is a plethora of (security) technology out there, and we know very little about how well it actually works and what it achieves in practice. Worse, we are not even entirely sure what it takes for a technology to be really successful.

There are several research topics available in this theme. Our current focus is on active and passive measurement of mission-critical, but woefully unprotected infrastructure: Internet routing and the Domain Name System. Our methods of choice are active scans and passive monitoring - and we have the hardware to do both. We own a scanning array for Internet-wide scans, and we have a live feed of the University’s network traffic (which we can analyse under strict privacy agreements!).

If you choose a project from this theme, you have the chance to make a contribution yourself and enrich our knowledge about the Internet. You should bring strong coding skills and a lot of curiosity and passion.

Keywords: security, scan, monitor, measurement

Advisor(s): Ralph Holz

Suitable for: MSc