TC: Small: Collaborative Research: Membership Inference in a Differentially Private World and Beyond

这项研究的目的是系统地了解、评估和解决聚合数据发布中的成员关系推断问题，这是一种在各种现实世界应用中普遍存在的、新颖的和危险的隐私威胁。提出的解决成员关系推理问题的主要思想是将隐私泄露作为一个噪声通信通道的信息论模型。基于信道编码理论和多输入多输出(MIMO)通信信道的最新进展，研究了新的成员关系推理技术，并探索了相应的隐私保护机制。智力优势：与已有研究相比，本研究具有以下显著特点：(1)本研究研究了聚合数据发布中的隶属度推理问题，这与传统的推理控制问题形成了鲜明对比。特别是，在所提出的问题定义中，可能泄露的敏感信息是聚集查询的选择属性，而不是其度量属性，这是传统推理控制的重点。(2)这一新问题还导致了一系列基于信息论的新解决方案。特别是，该研究针对各种类型的通信信道，例如单输入单输出(SISO)、多输入单输出(MISO)、单输入多输出(SIMO)和多输入多输出(MIMO)信道，研究了作为调制技术的隶属度推理攻击的模型。该通道模型能够对成员关系推理和隐私保护技术的有效性进行统一的评估。更广泛的影响：这项研究的结果对国家-S高等教育系统和高科技产业产生了更广泛的影响。敏感的会员信息披露技术和隐私保护技术的前景可以帮助聚合数据发布的提供商，包括国家卫生组织、互联网安全服务提供商等，保护其发布的数据。该项目的更广泛影响也延伸到学术界。该项目的一部分由乔治华盛顿大学(GWU)、道森大学(TU)和马萨诸塞大学洛厄尔分校(UML)的学生完成，作为高级课程项目或个人研究项目的一部分。

The objective of the proposed research is to systematically understand, evaluate and contribute towards the problem of membership inference in aggregate data publishing, a generic, novel, and dangerous privacy threat in a wide variety of real-world applications. The main idea proposed to address the problem of membership inference is an information-theoretic model of privacy disclosure as a noisy communication channel. Based on the channel coding theory and the recent advance in multi-input multi-output (MIMO) communication channels, the proposed research studies novel techniques for membership inference and explores the corresponding privacy-preserving mechanisms. Intellectual Merit: The following salient features distinguish the proposed work from existing studies: (1) the proposed research studies a novel problem of membership inference in aggregate data publishing which stands in sharp contrast to the traditional inference control problem. In particular, the sensitive information in danger of disclosure in the proposed problem definition is the selection attributes of an aggregate query instead of its measure attributes which is the focus on traditional inference control. (2) This novel problem also leads to a set of novel solutions based on information theory. In particular, the propose research studies a model of membership inference attacks as modulation techniques in time and frequency domains for various types of communication channels, e.g., single-input single-output (SISO), multiple-input and single-output (MISO), single-input and multiple-output (SIMO), and multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) channels. This proposed channel model enables a uniform evaluation of the effectiveness of both membership inference and privacy-preserving techniques. Broader Impact: The outcome of this research has broader impacts on the nation?s higher education system and high-tech industries. The prospect of sensitive membership information disclosure techniques and privacy-preserving techniques can help the providers of aggregated data publishing, including national health organizations, Internet security service providers, etc., to secure their published data. The broader impact of this project also extends to academia. Parts of this project is carried out by students of George Washington University (GWU), Towson University (TU), and University of Massachusetts, Lowell (UML) as part of advanced class projects or individual research projects.