CS 8803 - Cellular and
Mobile Network Security:
Class Projects
Professor Patrick Traynor
8/30/2012
What’s the Difference?
•
What is the difference between an BS, MS and PhD?
‣ How many points do you need to draw a line?
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This is a graduate class, so your best effort is not just
required,
it is expected
.
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The work that you do here needs to have the goal of
becoming publishable.
Projects
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Lots of questions have been sent to me via email in regards to
the course project.
‣ “Please tell me a project that I can do” ‣ It’s not as easy as that.
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“This is going to be a hard course”•
You need to be creative!
‣ Graduate students need to be able to identify and solve problems ‣ Simply building someone else’s idea is not going to cut it.
What is research?
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Which activities are research?
‣ Designing a new protocol?
‣ Building an implementation of a protocol? ‣ Measuring the cost of the protocol?
‣ Formally evaluating the correctness of a protocol?
What is not research?
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Arguing the quality of a protocol?
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Arguing the appropriateness of a protocol?
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Surveying a field?
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Illustrating a limitation of a common practice or
A Cynical Definition
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That which counts on your vita... is research.
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The hardest thing about a PhD is figuring out what
Research vs. Engineering
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Novelty...
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Importance... (sort of)
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Discovering a new fact or idea
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Engineering is often harder than research
Research vs. Opinion
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Arguing a position is not research unless it uncovers
some new thought or methodological device.
‣ Difference is very subtle•
Experts will often produce manifesto about an area
‣ E.g., Ten Risks of PKI: What You’re Note Being Told About Public Key Infrastructure. C. Ellison and B Schneier,
Computer Security Journal, v 16, n 1, 2000, pp 1-7.
•
The key here is that they are experts and have the bona fides to make such an argument.Why is there so much bad research?
•
Most papers (90+%) I encounter are
bad
-- for one or more
of the following reasons. The authors ...
‣ ...don’t formulate the problem well (or at all). ‣ ...don’t motivate the problem well (or at all). ‣ ...address an unimportant or moot problem.‣ ...are not familiar with the breadth or depth of the area. ‣ ...do not discuss important related work.
‣ ...do not have a coherent solution or it does not solve the problem. ‣ ...do not have a coherent or appropriate methodology.
‣ ...do not apply the methodology well.
‣ ...do not draw the correct conclusions from the results.
‣ ...do not present the work well enough to be understandable. ‣ ...do not articulate the impact/take away.
Security Research
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Can be as diverse as computer science itself
‣ Systems design ‣ Formal analysis
‣ Programming languages ‣ Hardware design
‣ Software engineering
‣ Human Computer Interfaces ‣ Networking...
•
Some are specific to security
‣ Cryptography
Idea Formulation
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The essential part of successful research is picking
good problems and solutions.
‣ If it is so easy, just jump in...Idea Formulation (cont)
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Good approaches to finding ideas:
‣ Read lots of papers in a particular area you think is interesting ‣ Read the newspaper and figure out what problems people have ‣ Read slashdot and learn about new emerging technology.
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...but ignore the vast majority of user comments•
Then as the following questions (write down answers)
‣ What are the problems that this area asks?
‣ What methodological tools are people using to address
problems in this area?
‣ How do your set of skills apply to these problems? ‣ How is the field evolving?
Hammers
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How do you solve problems?
‣ Are you an expert in performance analysis? Formalism? Are
you a policy specialist? Complexity reductions? Simulation master? Are you a systems builder? Interested in static
analysis?
•
Understand what techniques are being used in each
area so that:
‣ You can speak the language of that sub-community.
‣ You can understand the shortcomings of their methods and
Idea Formulation - Jumbles
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Do the following exercise:
‣ (5 minutes) Take four pieces of paper out of the bag being
passed around and come up with as many paper titles as you can.
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This is not an outline, there is no ordering.•
Use your imagination!•
Creativity is the essence of this exercise (don’t overthink)•
Some of the list will be nonsense - do not filter thoughts!‣ Example: If I got “Web 2.0” and “Location”, I might come up
with the following (just a start):
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“Large-scale Localization of Users based on Social Network GroupBehaviors”, “The Impact of Web 2.0 on Network Stability”, “The Leakage of Private Information from Web 2.0 Applications”.
Idea Formulation - Articles
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Read the following article.
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Speed is the key - not deep understanding.
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When you finish, write down the words that come into
your mind.
‣ Things you saw in the article
‣ Words or phrases that arose from these words ‣ A Paper Title
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This is stream of consciousness - there are no right or
Notes on Authorship
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This is the most dangerous part of publishing. This has led to
very serious rifts in the profession...
‣ Make sure that anyone involved knows the policy (what one needs to
do to be an author) the expectations and the repercussions of not participating as expected.
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Ordering matters in some fields (systems), not in others(math).
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Make sure everything is clear to everyone before getting
started.
‣ I know of best friends who no longer speak to each other.
Teams, Ideas, etc
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Students must form into groups of 2 with the expectation of
creating a publishable work by the end of the semester.
‣ I expect more from groups than individuals.‣ Graduate students are all considered to be at the same level -
PhD.
‣ Undergrads can focus more on an application, but are highly
encouraged to join a team with graduate students.
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Having a publication before grad school/the real world is a big plus on your resume.Idea Assignment: 9/18/12
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Everyone has 5 minutes to present idea (3 slides)
‣ Area ‣ Problem ‣ Related Works ‣ Solution ‣ Methodology ‣ Expected Results ‣ Expected Take Away
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Everyone should practice timing and presentation. If
the idea is not appropriate (tough love), or you don’t
Slide 1
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}
Slide 2
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Slide 3
