mSSL offers protected client-to-client data sharing
in addition to other features.
Conventionally, a client needs to directly request data
from a server. A new trend of data service over the Internet is to allow
multiple clients, such as thousands of clients of a web server, to share data
among themselves in a peer-to-peer fashion. This mechanism can potentially
prevent a server from being overwhelmed when serving large audiences, and enable
even an under-provisioned site to provide scalable data service. Accompanying
this trend, however, are new security challenges that conventional client-server
approaches such as SSL (secure socket layer) cannot
address.
mSSL addresses these challenges. Clients can securely
obtain data when needed, whether the data is from a server or other peer
clients. Among the variety of security services that mSSL can provide are the
following:
·
Access control:
Only authenticated data clients can obtain data, no matter where the data
originates.
·
Data integrity:
An authenticated data client can verify the integrity of
data.
·
Data confidentiality: Data can be encrypted so that only authenticated
clients can decrypt them.
·
Proof of service: A client that has obtained data from another peer
client C cannot deny the data service that he received from
C.
mSSL was developed by Prof. Jun Li, Associate professor for UO’s
Department of Computer and Information Science (CIS) and Director of the Network Security Research
Laboratory.