Anti-terrorism software that balances privacy and security?

[Ry Rivard]

Dave,

This seems interesting, but I'm skeptical about phrases like
"mathematically proven to be impossible to reverse-engineer." If
someone can explain this, that would be helpful. It seems either
remarkable, somewhat exactly what already exists minus the
impenetrability claim, or terribly over-hyped, or dangerous.
_________________
Anti-terrorism software claims to balance privacy and security

By BJS
Created 01/24/2006 - 13:42
The government's ability to balance the privacy concerns of lawful
U.S. citizens with effective monitoring of potential terrorists has
proven an increasingly difficult task, particularly in recent months.
But a landmark software development by researchers at UCLA's Henry
Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science may ease some of
these privacy concerns by making the tracking of terrorist
communications over the Internet more efficient, and more targeted,
than ever before.

UCLA Engineering professor Rafail Ostrovsky and graduate researcher
William Skeith have developed a new method to mine potential
terrorist-related communications that essentially narrows down the
data to only those documents that fit pre-set, secret criteria chosen
by intelligence agencies. The new approach filters down the
information from billions of communications to just those deemed
essential ??? discarding communications from law-abiding citizens before
they ever reach the intelligence community. That means lawful U.S.
citizens who don't fit the parameters are automatically ruled out.

The truly revolutionary facet of the technology is that it is a new
and powerful example of a piece of code that has been mathematically
proven to be impossible to reverse-engineer. In other words, it can't
be analyzed to figure out its components, construction and inner
workings, or reveal what information it's collecting and what
information it's discarding ??? it won't give up its secrets. It can't
be manipulated or turned against the user.

Because the code cannot be analyzed, terrorists using the Internet to
communicate will never know if the filter has pinpointed their data or
not. For those seeking to thwart terrorism, this development means
less data to store and wade through in a secure setting, and,
ultimately, the ability to react more quickly, without fear of
exposing top-secret search criteria and tipping off the terrorists.

..."Gathering data can be costly and time-consuming for intelligence
agencies. All of the potential data must first be pulled offline into
a trusted and classified environment, and then painstakingly sifted
through," Ostrovsky said. "With this new technology, based on highly
esoteric mathematics, the software can be distributed to many machines
on the Internet, not necessarily trusted or highly secure. The
software works by analyzing all of the data and then having the
appearance of putting all the data into a 'secure box.' A secret
filter inside the box dismisses some data as useless and collects only
relevant data according to the confidential criteria that can be
programmed into the software. And because it's all done inside
encrypted code, it's not apparent which, if any, of the data has been
selected and kept, except by the person who has deployed the filter
and has the decryption key."

The filter criteria can be reset as often as intelligence analysts
deem necessary to keep up with the changing terminology of terrorists.

"While a savvy person may be able to tell that the program is running
in the background, they will not be able to tell what data is being
selected," Ostrovsky explained. "For example, even if Al Qaeda had an
extremely knowledgeable programmer and, say, they steal a laptop with
this program, they would not be able to figure out which documents
were selected and kept inside the 'secure box' and which were not. By
distributing this software all over the Internet to providers and
network administrators, you can easily monitor a huge data flow in a
distributed, cost-efficient manner, and choose only those documents
that look promising based on your secret criteria. The filter cannot
be broken in the same sense that one cannot crack time???tested
public???key encryption functions such as those already used for
Internet commerce and banking applications. In that aspect, it's
essentially a bullet-proof technology."

...Ostrovsky, who also directs the Center of Information and
Computation Security at the school, said, "There have to be checks and
balances. Like any tool, technology can be used for good or bad. I
view this research as a new and viable way to combat terrorism that
can also strike a balance with the need for strong privacy protections
for ordinary citizens. It's an efficient data???gathering technology
against the bad guys. In that sense, it could be an exciting new tool
in the U.S. Department of Defense's arsenal against terror."

The technology also has other potential privacy-enhancing
applications. In addition to its use online, it also could be used by
physicians wishing to search patient records for certain medical
conditions while maintaining the patient's privacy from other workers
in the office, among other functions. The researchers already have
filed a patent on the work.

For more information contact Melissa Abraham
mabraham at support.ucla.edu
Phone: 310-206-0540

Source URL:
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/anti-
terrorism_software_claims_to_balance_privacy_and_security_9862

--
Ry Rivard
http://braxtonian.com

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