The IDC

EFI ARAZI SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Prof. Gadi Taubenfeld,
dean, Efi Arazi School
of Computer Science
Network Security Program at IDC is now in its third
year. During this year, the school is continuing with
its mission to produce graduate students with an
extensive background in computer security. A
unique characteristic of the school’s activities this
past year is the fact that they also played a role in
increasing the awareness of computer security
topics in the general computer science communities
and in the general public.
A UNIQUE CHARACTERISTIC OF THE SCHOOL’S ACTIVITIES
THIS PAST YEAR IS THE FACT THAT THEY ALSO PLAYED
A ROLE IN INCREASING THE AWARENESS OF COMPUTER
SECURITY TOPICS IN THE GENERAL COMPUTER SCIENCE
COMMUNITIES AND IN THE GENERAL PUBLIC.
This past year was very fruitful and eventful. The public was made aware
of the security issues by the Knesset’s attempt to legislate the Biometry
Repository Law and the Electronic Election Law. There was an exciting
public discussion on these subjects and the security program provided a
stage for the public debate about the issues.
In May the school co-organized with Tel-Aviv University a workshop on
Electronic voting. The parents of this successful initiative were Dr. Alon
Rosen (IDC), Prof. Assaf Jacov (IDC), Prof. Ran Canetti (TAU) and Dr.
Ronitt Rubinfeld (TAU). The two-day workshop (one day at IDC and one
day at TAU) brought together experts from a variety of disciplines (including
experts from Computer Science, Law and Government disciplines) to
debate the potential risks and benefits of electronic elections.
In August the school hosted a panel on the Biometry Repository, where
Minister Michal Eitan, the Minister of Interior Eli Yishay and Member of
the Knesset Meir Shitrit, together with Prof Eli Biham, Dr. Karine Barzilai-
Nahon and Adv. Haim Ravia presented their opinions on this controversial
subject. The tremendous success of the panel is due to the Israeli Forum for
Information Security, which co-organized the event.
As usual, in September, the school hosted for the fifth consecutive time the
OWASP- IL (Open Web Application Security Project) Conference 2009
at IDC. The conference was attended by 150 people from the application
security industry. Graduate student Ofer Rotberg gave a talk about his
thesis: A New Approach to XSS Detection using JavaScript modeling.
The tremendous success of these meetings is due to the boundless energy
and good will of the chair of OWASP IL, Ofer Shezaf, who initiated this
cooperation with IDC.
In order to encourage cooperation and discussion among the students who
are interested in the Security area, a series of meetings was initiated, named
Security Clubnet, which 10-15 graduate students attend out of personal
interest (no academic credit). The meetings take place every two weeks,
in the graduate lab. The meetings are informal, and at each meeting there
is one of the following activities: a hosted talk, a security-related video or
the presentation of a research paper by one of the group members. Each
of these activities is followed by a discussion and there has so far been
enthusiastic reactions from the students.
hOt Off the Press AcADemic news
The students enjoyed an excellent series of talks by security industry
experts including Iftach Ian Amit - former Director of Aladdin Research;
Shai Wolkomir - CEO and Co-Founder Celtegom; Etay Mor - Project
Manager RSA Research; Alex Nerst - CTO fring; Dr. Zvi Guterman - CEO
IT Structures.
THE SCHOOL’S STUDENTS CONTINUE TO ENJOY A RICH
PORTFOLIO OF CORE SECURITY COURSES. AMONG THEM IS
THE NEW AND IMPORTANT COURSE: DEVELOPING SECURE
APPLICATIONS, GIVEN BY DR. DAVID MOVSHOVITZ.
We have a number of graduate students engaged in research in the
area of security. The work of student, Yaron Koral, titled “Accelerating
Multi-Patterns Matching on Compressed HTTP Traffic” was accepted to
INFOCOM 2009, a top tier networking conference, and was presented
in Rio De Janeiro this April. David Movshovitz’s student, Ofer Rotberg,
suggested a very interesting approach to fight “cross-side scripting,” in his
work: “A New Approach to XSS Detection using JavaScript modeling.”
This work was submitted to a conference and is currently under review.
There is continued fruitful collaboration with experts from the security
industry. One of the school’s students carried out a research project, under
the guidance of Iftach Amit, former Director of Aladin Research, and
another student is working on a research project under the guidance of Dr.
Zvi Gutterman, CEO of IT structures. We have also fruitful collaborations
with Amit Klein, CTO of Trusteer and Dr. Shai Rubin from Microsoft.
The school’s students continue to enjoy a rich portfolio of core security
courses. Among them is the new and important course: Developing
Secure Applications, given by Dr. David Movshovitz.
IDC Winter 2010 > 37