Endpoint-Operated Link-assured Security

ABSTRACT: As networked computing becomes more and more critical to the US government and US corporations, it is crucial to protect them against new and unknown threats. The field of trusted computing has grown to provide assurances that the software on a computing system has not been tampered. While the basics of trusted computing have been developed for the last few years, there is currently no method to bootstrap a network of fully trusted heterogeneous devices to provide end-to-end trust (EtET). Without EtET, only a single client needs to be compromised before a leak of critical information. AIS, Inc. proposes EOLuS, an effort to develop a capability for realizing end-to-end trust in a dynamic network a network in which every client would verify and monitor the trustworthiness of its peers before communicating sensitive information. With this technology, servers could be protected from rogue clients, preventing possible attack, additionally, user and machine authentication could be securely transported across a network to provide different information to different users in an automatic fashion. When EOLuS is demonstrated as a successful capability providing end-to-end trust, it can be built upon to realize a whole host of new levels of IT simplification and increased data security. BENEFIT: When EOLuS is demonstrated as a successful capability providing end-to-end trust, it can be built upon to realize a whole host of new levels of IT simplification and increased data security. EOLuS will provide a strong foundation for future research in this field, providing the first steps on the road to fulfilling the dream that currently is end-to-end trust. Widely deployed trusted endpoints would be able to prevent malicious hosts from probing them for weaknesses, and provide the ability to extend data protection controls beyond the server to the client. At the completion of Phase I of EOLuS, a number of the outstanding questions will be solved, prototype algorithms developed, and a glimpse of the future of end-to-end trust brought to bear, a network which can detect and fight-through attack, and actively work to defend against data leakage.