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Author: tristan
Soundcomber: A Stealthy and Context-Aware Sound Trojan for Smartphones
Seminar by Dr Apu Kapadia, Indiana University
We introduce Soundcomber, a “sensory malware” for smartphones that
uses the microphone to steal private information from phone
conversations. Soundcomber is lightweight and stealthy. It uses
targeted profiles to locally analyze portions of speech likely to
contain information such as credit card numbers. It evades known
defenses by transferring small amounts of private data to the malware
server utilizing smartphone-specific covert channels. Additionally, we
present a general defensive architecture that prevents such sensory
malware attacks.
Event details
- When: 9th August 2012 14:00 - 15:00
- Where: Cole 1.33
- Format: Seminar
Mobile user study masterclass
SICSA Masterclass
Mobile user studies and experience sampling
Dr Apu Kapadia is a Distinguished SICSA Visitor in August 2012. As
part of his visit we are organising a pair of masterclasses in running
mobile user studies. These masterclasses are open to all SICSA PhD
students. Students will be need to be available to attend both
masterclasses:
– Thursday 2 August, University of Glasgow
– Thursday 9 August, University of St Andrews
The classes will cover how to design and run a mobile user study using
smartphones, and in particularly cover the use of the experience
sampling method (ESM), a currently popular methodology for collecting
rich data from real-world participants. In the first class, attendees
will learn about the methodology and be given a smartphone. Attendees
will then carry the smartphone and participate in a small study, and
we will cover data analysis in the second class in St Andrews. The
organisers have experience in running ESM studies which have looked at
mobility, social networking, security and privacy, but the methodology
should be of interest to PhD students in both the NGI and MMI themes.
Biography of Dr Apu Kapadia:
Apu Kapadia is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and
Informatics at the School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana
University. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in October 2005.
Dr Kapadia has published over thirty peer-reviewed conference papers
and journal articles focused on privacy, with several of these at
top-tier venues such as ACM TISSEC, IEEE TDSC, PMC, CCS, NDSS,
Pervasive, and SOUPS. For his work on accountable anonymity, two of
his papers were named as “Runners-up for PET Award 2009: Outstanding
Research in Privacy Enhancing Technologies”, a prestigious award in
the privacy community. His work on usable metaphors for controlling
privacy was given the “Honorable Mention Award (Runner-up for Best
Paper)” at Pervasive. Dr Kapadia’s recent work on smartphone
“sensory” malware that make use of onboard sensors was published at
NDSS and received widespread media coverage. His work on analyzing
privacy leaks on Twitter also received media attention naming his work
as one of the “7 Must-Read Twitter Studies from 2011”, and one of “The
10 Most Interesting Social Media Studies of 2011”.
Dr Kapadia is interested in topics related to systems’ security and
privacy. He is particularly interested in security and privacy issues
related to mobile sensing, privacy-enhancing technologies to
facilitate anonymous access to services with some degree of
accountability, usable mechanisms to improve security and privacy, and
security in decentralized and mobile environments.
Event details
- When: 9th August 2012 11:00 - 17:00
- Where: Cole 1.33
Sutton Trust summer school
The School welcomes a group of bright students from non-privileged homes for the Sutton Trust Summer School.
Event details
- When: 2nd July 2012 09:00 - 6th July 2012 10:30
- Where: Cole 0.35 - Subhons Lab
- Format: Summer School
School is top in Scotland in Times league table
The School of Computer Science is 5th in the UK and top in Scotland in the 2013 Times Good University Guide. The University as a whole came 6th.
School of Computer Science is 2nd in 2013 Guardian table
For the second year running the School of Computer Science is ranked second in the latest Guardian league table. The University as a whole is fourth.
St Andrews CS is 7th in Complete University Guide
The School of Computer Science remains 7th in the UK (and top in Scotland) in the 2013 Complete University Guide. The University as a whole came 6th.
Undergraduate visiting day
Prospective undergraduates are welcomed to the School of Computer Science for an undergraduate visiting day.
Event details
- When: 17th April 2013 14:00 - 15:30
- Format: Visiting Day
Undergraduate visiting day
Prospective undergraduates are welcomed to the School of Computer Science for an undergraduate visiting day.
Event details
- When: 10th April 2013 14:00 - 15:30
- Format: Visiting Day
Undergraduate visiting day
Prospective undergraduates are welcomed to the School of Computer Science for an undergraduate visiting day.
Event details
- When: 3rd April 2013 14:00 - 15:30
- Format: Visiting Day