Toward Proactive Mitigation of Advanced Multi-tier Botnets

Please make note of the following, free, on-line seminar.  Information about how to join the session can be found on the web site of the Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program at  http://cgep.virginia.gov/gmu_webinar.php

Speaker

Brent ByungHoon Kang, Ph.D.

Topic

Toward Proactive Mitigation of Advanced Multi-tier Botnets

Date and Time

February 8, 2012 from 5 pm – 6 pm

Abstract

In this talk I will present our on-going efforts to mitigate the advanced botnets. Botnet is a network of compromised machines, exploited to carry out malicious acts such as spam, phishing, denial of service attacks, and stealing sensitive data such as passwords and banking credentials. The detection and mitigation of these botnets have proven to be quite challenging. Malware authors, supported by a thriving underground economy, have demonstrated professional quality sophistication in creating codes highly adaptive to existing mitigation efforts.

We have explored a series of botnet mitigation approaches directed toward (i) creating new analysis and de-obfuscation methods to rapidly expose the botnets’ command and control protocols in a timely manner, (ii) in-depth analysis to explore the fundamental limits and weaknesses of the advanced botnet architecture, and (iii) designing an effective enumerator (or “mapping” of bot networks) to locate bot-infected hosts on the Internet.

Our research direction fundamentally differs from existing Intrusion Detection System (IDS) approaches. Unlike IDS, which is geared towards protecting local hosts within its perimeter, an enumerator will enable identification of both local and remote infections. Identifying remote infections is crucial, given that there are numerous computers on the Internet that are not under the protection of IDS-based systems. The resulting enumeration has been used for spam blocking, firewall configuration, DNS rewriting, and alerting sys-admins regarding local infections.

Rice Hall Opens

Technology that could transform life as we know it and improve the human condition – that’s the vision behind the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science’s new Rice Hall Information Technology Engineering Building. The building will open at the beginning of the fall semester for classes.

The state-of-the-art space will allow faculty and students to conduct research and learn in such areas as high-performance computing, computer visualization, computer security, energy conservation, wireless communications, telemedicine, virtual reality, distributed multimedia and distance learning.

As the new home for the Department of Computer Science and the Computer Engineering Program, Rice Hall will also feature unique space for lab work, lectures and studying.

“This building is a huge step forward for the Engineering School,” said Dean James H. Aylor at Rice Hall’s groundbreaking in April 2009. “With labs and study areas designed for collaborative research, and facilities to enhance our distance-education programs, this building will benefit the Engineering School, the University and citizens of the commonwealth for years to come.”

The creation of Rice Hall was made possible by a lead gift of $10 million from Paul and Gina Rice, through the Rice Family Foundation.

On the Rice Hall website, Paul Rice, a 1975 electrical engineering alumnus, wrote: “The real promise of what will happen here is the 21st-century extension of the Academical Village and what will be made possible by the technologies that are used, developed and explored in these places. The village won’t simply exist then in these buildings or on this campus, but across the state, across the nation and globe. We have only really begun to understand the way in which these technologies can enhance human performance and accomplishment and how they can improve the human condition.”

Additional funding for the $65.5 million Rice Hall project came from U.Va., the state and from other U.Va. alumni and friends.

The building was designed by Bohlin Cynwinski Jackson and is being constructed by W.M. Jordan Company.

Located at the corner of Whitehead and Stadium roads behind Olsson Hall, Rice Hall consists of six stories covering 100,000 square feet. It is designed to be Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design-certified, commonly known as LEED. It also will be at the forefront of air and power technology, noted senior project manager Craig Hilten of Facilities Management.

Rice Hall’s “chilled beams” use water instead of air to remove heat from rooms – a new technology for University facilities. With sophisticated technologies for heating, cooling and lighting, and including energy recovery systems, Rice Hall also will function as a living laboratory on energy use.

When it opens, students and faculty going about their daily routines in the building will help researchers learn how to optimize the latest energy technologies for large buildings. The building’s instrumentation systems will collect data that will allow managers to optimize its energy consumption. The research also could inform behaviors, such as closing doors or powering down equipment to help reduce energy consumption.

Both undergraduate and graduate students will benefit from specialized lab spaces on all six floors. The largest is the Design Laboratory, located on the first floor, where Introduction to Engineering classes will be taught. With folding doors, it opens and connects to the courtyard, providing space for lab work that must be completed outside.

Also, space in the basement provides the appropriate environment for lab procedures that require specialized lighting. They include the Light Measurement Laboratory and the Visualization Lab.  The floors, ceilings and walls are black, reducing stray light and enhancing image presentation.

Equipped with enhanced audio and video capabilities, Rice Hall also supports the Engineering School’s distance-learning initiatives and teleconferencing – especially benefitting the PRODUCED in Virginia engineering program, in which students earn a four-year engineering degree from U.Va. while attending local community colleges.

Other features of Rice Hall include a 150-seat lecture hall, a cyber cafe, an Einstein’s Bagels eatery and a lobby – all located on the first floor.

Rice Hall will be formally dedicated Nov. 18.

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Reposted from the Aug. 8, 2011 issue of UVa Today.  By Julia Wang.

Computer Chess

Studying Deep Blue: The History and Engineering behind Computer Chess By: Lawrence Aung

Article appears in the Vol. 11, Issue 3 edition of Illumin, the undergraduate engineering magazine from the University of Southern California.  View this issue at http://illumin.usc.edu/

Certain Core Competencies Can Help Software Engineers Stand Out

In the “Career Management” blog at Tech Republic (1/21), Head Blogs Editor Toni Bowers writes that, according to CareerCast, software engineer is “the hottest job for 2011.” For those “who would like to know how to stand out from the pack” in this competitive field, Bowers lists “five core skills to help build critical competencies.” The list, created by Bruce Douglas, “Chief Evangelist from IBM Rational,” includes electric vehicle mechanics, probability and statistics, environmental engineering, engineering economics, and ethics.

Reposted from the 1/21/11 ASEE First Bell.

Top Young Innovator

U.Va. Computer Scientist One of World’s Top Young Innovators, According to MIT Technology Review

August 27, 2010 — Kim Hazelwood, assistant professor of computer science at the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, has been recognized by Technology Review magazine as one of the world’s top innovators under the age of 35.

The magazine, based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, cited her work in developing a run-time adaptation tool that allows computers to rewrite software programs while they’re running.

A panel of expert judges and the editorial staff of Technology Review selected Hazelwood from more than 300 nominees. The annual “TR35″ list includes young researchers who are changing the world through medicine, computing, communications, nanotechnology and more.

Read more at http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=12712

UVa Microsoft Research Fellow

July 12, 2010 — abhi shelat, assistant professor of computer science at the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, was recently selected as a Microsoft Research Faculty Fellow for 2010.

The fellowship award includes an unrestricted cash gift of $200,000 and access to other Microsoft resources, such as software, invitations to conferences and engagements with Microsoft Research, the company’s worldwide research organization.

shelat will use the award to support his research in the field of computer cryptography, which is essential for securing information that is exchanged on everything from wireless networks to automated teller machines to Internet banking sites.

“This award recognizes abhi’s brilliance as a researcher and it will help him advance his work in the field of cryptography,” said Mary Lou Soffa, chair of the U.Va. Department of Computer Science. “We are honored to have him as a colleague.”

This year was particularly competitive because Microsoft combined the domestic and international competitions for the awards. There were only seven fellows chosen from Latin America and the Caribbean; Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; the United States; and Canada.

“abhi possesses a rare combination of vision and creativity that enables him to select highly original research topics that are both theoretically significant as well as applicable in practice,” said Gabriel Robins, a professor in the Department of Computer Science. “I found it refreshing that abhi also cares a great deal about teaching and pedagogy. We often have long conversations and exchange ideas about how to better explain to students deep and subtle theoretical concepts.”

Reposted from UVa Today July 13, 2010

Working While You Sleep…

Software That Carries Out Tasks On Behalf Of Sleeping Computers Could Lead To Energy Savings.

Technology Review (6/30, Graham-Rowe) reports, “Networked PCs are increasingly being left on 24/7 to allow for out-of-hours access by employees, says Yuvraj Agarwal, a professor of computer science at the University of California, San Diego.” Agarwal, along with other UCSD professors, developed an energy-saving solution wherein they “create a stripped down, virtual copy of a machine. Software running on a remote server maintains a version of a PC’s operating systems and applications. The software, called SleepServer, carries on tasks on behalf of the desktop machine while it is put into a low-energy sleep mode.” And, if “complex activity is required, the software wakes up the computer, says Agarwal, a process that typically takes less than 10 seconds.”

Reposted from the June 30, 2010 ASEE First Bell

Milking the System for All It’s Worth

HP Seeks To Power Data Centers With Cow Manure.

The Times (UK) (5/23, Dey) reported Hewlett-Packard “is working on plans to power its data centres using energy generated from cow manure.” Company researchers “want to build computer warehouses on dairy farms where they would be hooked up to power plants fuelled by waste.” According to the article, “just one cow produces enough waste every day to power the televisions in three typical households. A large dairy farm, with about 10,000 cows, produces enough to run one of the firm’s typical data centres and meet the energy needs of the farmer, the HP scientists believe. If it works, the scheme could potentially solve two of the world’s looming environmental problems at a stroke:” the disposal of farm waste and large amounts of energy needed to cool off data centers.

Natural Selection Among the Ions

Program Simulates Natural Selection To Improve Ion Engine Design.

New Scientist (5/24, Marks) magazine reported, “The life expectancy of a popular type of ion engine has been almost doubled using software that mimics the way natural selection evolves ever fitter designs.” Cody Farnell, a space flight engineer at the University of Colorado, used a “genetic algorithm” (GA) in order to change the girds typically used in ion engines, which typically last 2.8 years. The geometry and voltages of the grids were substituted for the genes the program typically simulates. If a configuration looked “promising, the ‘genetic material’ was subjected to further random changes,” ultimately leading to a configuration that could last 5.1 years if the simulation is correct. “The engine could be improved further, says Farnell, by evolving the other parts too.”

Reposted from ASEE First Bell for May 25, 2010

Microprocessor Power Use

COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT COLLOQUIUM

SPEAKER: Antonio González, Director, Intel Barcelona Research Center

TOPIC: Software to the Rescue of Power

DATE: Monday, May 10

TIME: 1:00 p.m.

PLACE: Olsson Hall Room 009

Abstract:  Power has become the main limiting factor for the scalability of microprocessors.  This limit is different for different systems (e.g. servers, desktops, laptops, MIDs, etc.), but in all of them it is already constraining the computing capabilities of the microprocessor.

Moore’s law will continue to provide us with the capability to integrate more devices in the same area, but the benefit of this ever increasing power density is jeopardized by the difficulties to dissipate the increased power it requires.  This clearly indicates that innovative solutions to reduce power are needed to harness the benefits of Moore’s law in order to keep delivering an increased performance to the end user.

To address this challenge, in this talk we will explore an approach based on implement microprocessors based on hardware/software co-design.

The main advantages of this approach are dramatic reductions in power and area without compromising performance when compared with traditional approaches.  This approach has other important advantages in the areas of scalability, reliability, legacy code and prototyping of new techniques that will be discussed.