A $5.8 million award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will be used by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and five partners for a large research project that will explore challenges in cyber security in the era of cloud computing.
“Cyber security is one of the most significant economic and national security challenges facing our nation today,” said Farnam Jahanian, NSF’s assistant director for computer and information science and engineering.
Michael Reiter, the Lawrence M. Slifkin Distinguished Professor of Computer Science in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, is the principal investigator on the project, “Rethinking security in the era of cloud computing.” Jay Aikat, a research assistant professor in computer science, is the UNC co-principal investigator. Outside partners include Stony Brook, Duke and N.C. State universities, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and RSA Labs.
Reiter said the vast majority of cloud computing research is driven by the perception that it decreases security for its customers, in comparison to those customers using their own infrastructures. “Instead we see new opportunities for improving the security of data and services by moving them to the cloud, and we plan on pursuing an aggressive research agenda to realize these opportunities,” he said. The work has been dubbed, “Project Silver.” For information, visit http://silver.cs.unc.edu.
College of Arts and Sciences contact: Kim Spurr, (919) 962-4093, spurrk@email.unc.edu