CAREER: Inclusive Cybersecurity Through the Lens of Accessible Identity and Access Management

-----------------------------------------------------------------------这个学院早期职业发展(Career)项目提高了个人的网络安全意识，这些个人认为自己是历史上被排除在科学和工程专业之外的种族和民族的成员(S和安培；e)。这种任职比例偏低可能导致S发展网络安全技能的机会减少。因此，本研究集中在网络安全意识方面，涉及用户身份认证身份凭证的适当使用和管理。这一重点很重要，因为与凭据相关的账户泄露是最常见的网络攻击类型之一，而历史上被排除在外的种族和民族群体的成员更经常成为网络攻击的目标。此外，虽然对包容性认证的研究正在增长，但针对历史上被排除在外的种族和民族群体的包容性用户认证方案研究不足。通过综合研究和教育活动，该项目开发新的、包容性的用户身份验证系统，以降低网络安全风险，并以种族和民族为中心。该项目的成果还为K-12和大学生以及更广泛的人群提供了以网络安全为重点的教育材料，从而扩大了国家的网络安全防御。该项目邀请S和E；E历史上被排除在外的种族和民族的个人参与，为包容性身份验证系统的设计、实施和适当使用提供信息。研究团队正在进行一系列焦点小组，以确定现有身份验证系统的当前使用和看法，各种网络安全做法如何应用于日常生活，以及包括种族平等和文化价值观在内的各种因素如何塑造对计算和网络安全的看法。还研究了认证系统的性能，包括基于知识的和基于人工智能的生物识别系统，以识别数据驱动和算法偏差。这种性能分析通过多会话数据收集来促进，通过该数据收集从志愿者研究参与者那里收集模拟凭证以及身体和行为生物识别线索。利用这些见解和数据，使用包括软生物测定分类、特征选择和多模式融合在内的各种方法来开发解决与用户、认证类型或认证模型的子组相关联的不良通用性、失败趋势和认证错误的新型认证系统。这一职业项目为有助于包容性和可访问性网络安全解决方案的认证系统的设计和实施提供信息，通过暴露它们何时以及如何隔离某些群体并识别知识和基于生物识别的认证系统中的偏见来改变最先进的认证系统，为网络安全研究贡献新的、多样化的数据集，并为包容性身份和访问管理的未来方向提供信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) project increases the cybersecurity awareness of individuals identifying as members of racial and ethnic groups historically excluded in Science and Engineering (S&E). Such underrepresentation could lead to reduced opportunities in S&E in which cybersecurity skills are developed. Thus, this research focuses on cybersecurity awareness concerning the appropriate use and management of identity credentials for user authentication. This focus is important as credential-related account compromises are among the most common types of cyberattacks, while members of historically excluded racial and ethnic groups are more frequently targeted by cyberattacks. Further, while research on inclusive authentication is growing, inclusive user authentication schemes for historically excluded racial and ethnic groups are understudied. Through integrated research and education activities, this project develops novel, inclusive user authentication systems to reduce cybersecurity risk, with race and ethnicity central foci. Outcomes of this project also provide cybersecurity-focused education material for K-12 and university students and the broader population, thereby expanding the nation's cybersecurity defense.This project engages individuals from historically excluded racial and ethnic groups in S&E to inform the design, implementation, and appropriate use of inclusive authentication systems. The research team is conducting a series of focus groups to identify current use and perceptions of existing authentication systems, how various cybersecurity practices are applied in everyday life, and how various factors, including racial equity and cultural values, shape perceptions of computing and cybersecurity. Performance of authentication systems, including knowledge-based and AI-derived biometric systems, is also investigated to identify data-driven and algorithmic biases. This performance analysis is facilitated through a multi-session data collection, through which mock credentials and physical and behavioral biometric cues are gathered from volunteering research participants. With these insights and data, novel authentication systems that address poor generalization, failure trends, and authentication errors associated with subgroups of users, the authentication type, or the authentication model are developed using a variety of approaches, including soft biometric classification, feature selection, and multimodal fusion. This CAREER project informs the design and implementation of authentication systems that contribute to inclusive and accessible cybersecurity solutions, transforms state-of-the-art authentication systems by exposing when and how they isolate certain groups and identifying biases in knowledge and biometric-based authentication systems, contributes a novel, diverse dataset for cybersecurity research, and informs future directions for inclusive identity and access management.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.