Special Session on Security Verification

Abstract

Alongside functionality, performance, and power, security is a critical aspect of any system. All software or hardware systems, web applications, and engineered systems built today must comply with stringent requirements in each of these aspects. Security requirements might include that a server must withstand malicious attacks such as stealing or damaging the data or even denial of service. Each of these attacks can have disastrous effects. During the last year alone we saw several examples of such attacks in the media, including: stealing money from bank accounts and ATM machines, bringing down websites, and even breaking into a car computer system while it is driving.

In this session we address the challenges of verifying and validating that a system being built fulfills its security requirements.

This year is the centennial year for Alan Turing. There are many events taking place throughout the world to celebrate Turing’s life and his scientific impact. HVC, and this session in particular, is part of these world-wide events.

During his relatively brief life, Turing had an enormous impact on many different fields within computer science: theory of computability, artificial intelligence, and of course cryptography and security. During World War II, Turing worked at the British codebreaking center at Bletchley Park. He stood at the head of the section responsible for decoding German naval ciphers. He also invented several methods for breaking codes, with the most famous associated with deciphering the Enigma machine.

We devote this session to honoring Alan Turing’s leadership in breaking German ciphers during WorldWar II and his contribution to cryptography in general.

We would like to thank several people who made this session possible: Hana Chockler, Ronny Morad, and Amir Nahir.