SCIENCE & ENGINEERING NEWS

Washington, D.C. — AT&T and Internet2 announced that Dartmouth College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison will be sites for the Internet2 Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Labs. These newly created research laboratories will help develop and deploy interoperable technologies to make the Internet more secure, more reliable and easier to use. AT&T is providing initial funding for the labs.

“We’re excited about the forthcoming PKI Lab work,” said Professor David Nicol, Professor and Chair of the Department of Computer Science at Dartmouth, and Technical Coordinator of the Cybersecurity program at Dartmouth’s Institute for Security Technology Studies (ISTS). “It synergistically brings together ISTS, the Computer Science Department, and the Computing Services group. We’ll be focusing on problems that arise when systems require distribution of identity and authorization information, particularly the ‘pervasive computing’ systems that are just around the technological corner. The small university environment of Dartmouth provides an ideal testbed for working out research ideas in a real context.”

“This PKI Lab award will accelerate the pace and increase the depth of collaboration at University of Wisconsin-Madison and across the Internet2 community. We see ourselves scouting ahead to discover and help overcome barriers to broad-scale PKI deployment,” said Keith Hazelton, Senior Information Technology Architect with the Division of Information Technology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “PKI offers great promise for addressing issues in privacy, data confidentiality, data integrity and reliable digital signatures.”

Internet users need a simple, reliable way to securely use services ranging from remote scientific instruments to email, calendar and e-commerce. In addition, privacy is an important consideration when using many services, such as digital libraries.

A PKI ties together information in digital certificates, databases and directories, enabling reliable authentication and authorization across organizational boundaries. Widely deployed PKI-enabled middleware is essential for the Internet to become more secure and effective.

The Internet2 PKI Labs will develop PKI technology that is more scalable, open, secure and private. It will allow enterprises to better secure access to information and services over the Internet. Service providers will deploy end-user solutions more quickly by eliminating the need to build components from the ground up. Close collaboration with Internet2 corporate partners will help promote rapid deployment in the global Internet.

A board of leading experts from industry, government and academia provide leadership and direction for the Internet2 PKI Labs. Members of the board include Steve Bellovin, Fellow, AT&T Labs; Carl M. Ellison, Senior Security Architect, Intel Corporation; Richard A. Guida, Chair, Federal PKI Steering Committee, Federal Chief Information Officers Council; RL “Bob” Morgan, Senior Technology Architect, Computing & Communications, University of Washington; Robert Moskowitz, Senior Technical Director, ICSA.net; Clifford Neuman, Senior Research Scientist, Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California; and Jeffrey Schiller, Network Manager, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

For more information about the Internet2 PKI Labs, see: http://middleware.internet2.edu/pkilabs/ . For details about the activities planned at Dartmouth, see: http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~pkilab/ . For details about the activities planned at University of Wisconsin-Madison, see: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/pkilab/ .

Led by over 180 US universities working with industry and government, Internet2 is developing and deploying advanced network applications and technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of tomorrow’s Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnership of academia, industry and government that helped foster today’s Internet in its infancy. For more information about Internet2, see: http://www.internet2.edu/

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