Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Thea Peacock
Full text is not currently available for this publication.
With an overall theme of information flow, this thesis has two main strands. In the first part of the thesis, I review existing information flow properties, highlighting a recent definition known as opacity [25]. Intuitively, a predicate ø is opaque if for every run in which ø is true, there exists an indistinguishable run in which it is false, where a run can be regarded as a sequence of events. Hence, the observer is never able to establish the truth of ø. The predicate ø can be defined according to requirements of the system, giving opacity a great deal of flexibility and versatility. Opacity is then studied in relation to several well-known definitions for information flow. As will be shown, several of these properties can be cast as variations of opacity, while others have a relationship by implication with the opacity property [139]. This demonstrates the flexibility of opacity, at the same time establishing its distinct character. In the second part of the thesis, I investigate information flow in voting systems. Prêt à Voter [36] is the main exemplar, and is compared to other schemes in the case study. I first analyse information flow in Prêt à Voter and the FOO scheme [59], concentrating on the core protocols. The aim is to investigate the security requirements of each scheme, and the extent to which they can be captured using opacity. I then discuss a systems-based analysis of Prêt à Voter [163], which adapts and extends an earlier analysis of the Chaum [35] and Neff [131], [132], [133] schemes in [92]. Although this analysis has identified several potential vulnerabilities, it cannot be regarded as systematic, and a more rigorous approach may be necessary. It is possible that a combination of the information flow and systems-based analyses might be the answer.
Author(s): Peacock T
Publication type: Report
Publication status: Published
Series Title:
Year: 2006
Institution: School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Place Published: Newcastle upon Tyne
Notes: British Lending Library DSC stock location number: DXN102703
