Germano Caronni

Bio: Germano Caronni is an academic researcher from Google. The author has contributed to research in topics: Private network & Encryption. The author has an hindex of 27, co-authored 82 publications receiving 3056 citations. Previous affiliations of Germano Caronni include ETH Zurich & Sun Microsystems Laboratories.

The VersaKey framework: versatile group key management

Abstract: Middleware supporting secure applications in a distributed environment faces several challenges. Scalable security in the context of multicasting or broadcasting is especially hard when privacy and authenticity is to be assured to highly dynamic groups where the application allows participants to join and leave at any time. Unicast security is well-known and has widely advanced into production state. But proposals for multicast security solutions that have been published so far are complex, often require trust in network components, or are inefficient. In this paper, we propose a framework of new approaches for achieving scalable security in IP multicasting. Our solutions assure that newly joining members are not able to understand past group traffic and that leaving members may not follow future communication. For versatility, our framework supports a range of closely related schemes for key management, ranging from tightly centralized to fully distributed, and even allows switching between these schemes on-the-fly with low overhead. Operations have low complexity [O(log N) for joins or leaves], thus granting scalability even for very large groups. We also present a novel concurrency-enabling scheme, which was devised for fully distributed key management. In this paper, we discuss the requirements for secure multicasting, present our flexible system, and evaluate its properties based on the existing prototype implementation.

Efficient, secure multicasting with minimal knowledge

Abstract: A system for secure multicast including a plurality of participants that can send and receive multicast messages. A traffic distribution component is coupled to the participating entities, where the traffic distribution component supports multiple receiver communication. A participant key management component operates within each participant entity where the participant key management component uses a first key that is shared with all of the other participants, and a second key that is shared with a subgroup of participants. A group key management component is implemented using a flat data structure having a size that is logarithmically proportional to the number of participants.

Assuring Ownership Rights for Digital Images

Abstract: The use of digital data has become more and more commercialized. This is especially true for digital images, where proofs of origin and of content integrity are an important issue. This paper describes a problem related to ‘proof of origin’ and proposes a possible solution to it. After a discussion of the solution, possible extensions and related areas of work are addressed.

Apparatus and method for the use of position information in wireless applications

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention are directed at gathering position information of mobile and stationary entities and using the position information in a wide variety of applications. Various embodiments use a plurality of signal transmitting devices and/or a plurality of signal gathering devices to gather position information. In one embodiment, the signal transmitting device is an existing mobile electronic device. In another embodiment, the signal transmitting device is a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag attached to an entity. In another embodiment, the signal gathering device is a collection of wall mounted antennas. The entity location is calculated by gathering the phase difference or other timing information of signal generated by the signal transmitting device on the entity. This location information is then given to end user applications. One embodiment is a network security application using gathered location information of wireless ethernet cards. Another embodiment is a network resource locator application.

Method and apparatus for providing secure communication with a relay in a network

Abstract: Methods and systems of the present invention include providing a connection between a first computer and a second computer by receiving, at a third computer, information regarding one of the first and second computers to facilitate establishment of a secure connection between the first computer and the second computer, creating a first end-to-end security link between the first computer and third computer, and creating a second end-to-end security link between the second computer and the third computer to establish the secure connection. The first and second computers could be a client and a server on the Internet, and these methods and systems can, for example, increase the possible number of new secure connections to the server. The third computer also permits processing of information transmitted between the client and server in the third computer. For example, the information could be reformatted or used in testing a process of one of the first and second computers.

Systems and Methods for Secure Transaction Management and Electronic Rights Protection

Abstract: PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem, wherein it is impossible for an electronic content information provider to provide commercially secure and effective method, for a configurable general-purpose electronic commercial transaction/distribution control system. SOLUTION: In this system, having at least one protected processing environment for safely controlling at least one portion of decoding of digital information, a secure content distribution method comprises a process for encapsulating digital information in one or more digital containers; a process for encrypting at least a portion of digital information; a process for associating at least partially secure control information for managing interactions with encrypted digital information and/or digital container; a process for delivering one or more digital containers to a digital information user; and a process for using a protected processing environment, for safely controlling at least a portion of the decoding of the digital information. COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Secure spread spectrum watermarking for multimedia

Abstract: This paper presents a secure (tamper-resistant) algorithm for watermarking images, and a methodology for digital watermarking that may be generalized to audio, video, and multimedia data. We advocate that a watermark should be constructed as an independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) Gaussian random vector that is imperceptibly inserted in a spread-spectrum-like fashion into the perceptually most significant spectral components of the data. We argue that insertion of a watermark under this regime makes the watermark robust to signal processing operations (such as lossy compression, filtering, digital-analog and analog-digital conversion, requantization, etc.), and common geometric transformations (such as cropping, scaling, translation, and rotation) provided that the original image is available and that it can be successfully registered against the transformed watermarked image. In these cases, the watermark detector unambiguously identifies the owner. Further, the use of Gaussian noise, ensures strong resilience to multiple-document, or collusional, attacks. Experimental results are provided to support these claims, along with an exposition of pending open problems.

Information hiding-a survey

Abstract: Information-hiding techniques have recently become important in a number of application areas. Digital audio, video, and pictures are increasingly furnished with distinguishing but imperceptible marks, which may contain a hidden copyright notice or serial number or even help to prevent unauthorized copying directly. Military communications systems make increasing use of traffic security techniques which, rather than merely concealing the content of a message using encryption, seek to conceal its sender, its receiver, or its very existence. Similar techniques are used in some mobile phone systems and schemes proposed for digital elections. Criminals try to use whatever traffic security properties are provided intentionally or otherwise in the available communications systems, and police forces try to restrict their use. However, many of the techniques proposed in this young and rapidly evolving field can trace their history back to antiquity, and many of them are surprisingly easy to circumvent. In this article, we try to give an overview of the field, of what we know, what works, what does not, and what are the interesting topics for research.

[서평]「Applied Cryptography」

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to give a comprehensive introduction to applied cryptography with an engineer or computer scientist in mind. The emphasis is on the knowledge needed to create practical systems which supports integrity, confidentiality, or authenticity. Topics covered includes an introduction to the concepts in cryptography, attacks against cryptographic systems, key use and handling, random bit generation, encryption modes, and message authentication codes. Recommendations on algorithms and further reading is given in the end of the paper. This paper should make the reader able to build, understand and evaluate system descriptions and designs based on the cryptographic components described in the paper.

Method of delivery, targeting, and measuring advertising over networks

Abstract: Methods and apparatuses for targeting the delivery of advertisements over a network such as the Internet are disclosed. Statistics are compiled on individual users and networks and the use of the advertisements is tracked to permit targeting of the advertisements of individual users. In response to requests from affiliated sites, an advertising server transmits to people accessing the page of a site an appropriate one of the advertisement based upon profiling of users and networks.