TRUST: Team for Research in Ubiquitous Secure Technology

The role and penetration of computing systems and networks in our societal infrastructure continues to grow, and their importance to societal safety and the security has never been greater. As society uses computers, systems, and networks in increasingly important ways, the underlying technology provided often does not meet the desired level of trust and many critical infrastructure systems remain untrustworthy. Viruses and worms sweep the Internet and exhibit increasing virulence at a rate of speed that is directly proportional to their growing ease of deployment. Privacy and security remain poorly understood, poorly supported, and generally inadequate. Broader issues of software usability, reliability, and correctness remain challenging, as do understanding how users interact with computers and in which ways systems can be designed to influence users to behave in a more secure manner.

The Team for Research in Ubiquitous Secure Technology (TRUST) is focused on the development of cybersecurity science and technology that will radically transform the ability of organizations to design, build, and operate trustworthy information systems for our state and nation’s critical infrastructure.

TRUST is addressing fundamental problems in a number of areas, including:

• Security and privacy issues associated with the rapidly increasing use of electronic media for the archival and access of patient medical records.
• Web authentication, end-user privacy, next-generation browser security, malware detection, and improved system forensic techniques to combat online attacks.
• Application defenses for network-level intrusions and attacks including compromised and malfunctioning legacy applications, viruses, worms, and spyware.
• Incentives for research, investment, policies, and procedures for technology that enhance system security, privacy, and trustworthiness.
• Techniques that ensure trustworthy computing by securing hardware, improving software robustness, and increasing the survivability of critical systems.

More information on TRUST is available at http://www.truststc.org.