SaTC: CORE: Small: Usable Key Management and Forward Secrecy for Secure Email

在我们这个互联的世界里，安全地在线发送和接收信息是一项基本需求。然而，除了最专业的用户之外，最常用的在线应用之一——电子邮件——在很大程度上仍然不安全。研究人员将收集数据，以更好地了解用户不采用安全电子邮件的原因。他们还将为用户确定最实用、可用的做法，以保护他们的安全电子邮件免受黑客攻击，并确保他们不会因为忘记密码或解锁敏感电子邮件的钥匙而失去访问安全电子邮件的权限。最初的研究将在实验室环境中进行，利用研究人员开发的一种新方法，测试两个新手用户是否可以在没有外部专家帮助的情况下采用安全的电子邮件系统。在项目结束时，研究人员将对他们开发的一流系统进行长期的可用性研究，以了解人们如何将安全电子邮件集成到他们的日常电子邮件习惯中。这个项目解决了长期存在的问题，即为公众提供可用的、安全的电子邮件。密钥管理是一个核心问题。研究人员将探索首次使用信任（豆腐）密钥交换，然后采用各种方法提高对交换密钥的信任。从豆腐开始，密钥交换优先考虑可部署性和可用性，而其他方法可以提高安全性，例如，通过使用公共分类账和前向保密。密钥将只与定期或批准的联系人交换，这样垃圾邮件发送者就不容易向大量用户发送加密的垃圾邮件和恶意软件。研究人员还将开发可用的密钥存储软件，包括密钥便携性和备份。潜在的解决方案包括纯本地存储、加密云存储、智能手机应用程序和硬件令牌。对于备份，我们将评估各种方法，以帮助用户将主密钥存储在安全位置，而不需要技术专长来管理密钥。研究人员将支持使用密钥棘轮对安全电子邮件进行前向保密。通过为电子邮件开发其通用性和互操作性需求，可用密钥管理的进步将广泛适用于各种其他应用程序，包括即时消息传递。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Sending and receiving information securely online is a basic need in our connected world. However, one of the most frequently used online applications, email, remains largely insecure for all but the most expert users. The researchers will gather data to better understand why users do not adopt secure email. They will also identify the most practical, usable practices for users to safeguard their secure email from hackers, and make sure they do not lose access to their secure email by forgetting the password or key that unlocks their sensitive emails. The initial studies will be conducted in a laboratory environment, utilizing a novel methodology the researchers have developed that tests whether two novice users can adopt a secure email system without help from an outside expert. Toward the end of the project, the researchers will conduct long-term usability studies with the best-of-class systems they have developed to understand how people integrate secure email into their everyday email habits.This project addresses the long-standing problem of providing usable, secure email for the general public. Key management is a core problem. The researchers will explore a trust-on-first-use (TOFU) key exchange, followed by a variety of methods that improve trust in the exchanged keys. Starting with TOFU key exchange prioritizes deployability and usability, while additional methods can increase security, for example, by using a public ledger and forward secrecy. Keys will be exchanged only with regular or approved contacts so that it is not easy for spammers to deliver encrypted spam and malware to large numbers of users. The researchers will also develop usable key storage software, including key portability and backup. Potential solutions include purely local storage, encrypted cloud storage, a smartphone app, and hardware tokens. For backup, we will evaluate a variety of methods to help users store a master key in a secure location, without requiring technical expertise to manage the key. The researchers will support forward secrecy for secure email using key ratcheting. By developing for email, with its generality and interoperability requirements, advances in usable key management will be broadly applicable to a wide variety of other applications, including instant messaging.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.