Secure Messaging

Simson Garfinkel's work in Secure Messaging

PhD Thesis

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 2005

Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering

Dissertation: Design Principles and Patterns for Computer Systems that are Simultaneously Secure and Usable

Specific chapters on the topic of secure messaging:

• Chapter 5, Solving Secure Email's "Grand Challenge" with Signature-Only Email
• Chapter 6, The Key Certification Problem: Rethinking PKI
• Chapter 7, Key Continuity Management

Articles

1. Garfinkel, S., Schiller, J., Nordlander, E., Margrave, D., and Miller, R., "How To Make Secure Email Easier To Use", CHI 2005: Technology,Safety, Community, Portland, Oregon, April 2-7, 2005. (Acceptance rate: ~25%)
2. Garfinkel, S., Schiller, J., Nordlander, E., Margrave, D., and Miller, R., "Views, Reactions and Impact of Digitally-Signed Mail in e-Commerce", Ninth International Financial Cryptography and Data Security Conference, February 28-March 3, 2005, Roseau, The Commonwealth of Dominica. (Acceptance rate: 26%, 24/90)
3. Garfinkel, S. Email-Based Identification and Authentication: An Alternative to PKI?, IEEE Security & Privacy, November/December 2003.
4. Garfinkel, S. Enabling Email Confidentiality through the use of Opportunistic Encryption", presented at the 2003 National Conference on Digital Government Research, May 2003, Boston, MA. (slides)

Recent Research Projects in Secure Messaging

• Deploying S/MIME signatures for bulk mail at the Naval Postgraduate School.
• Surveying the incidence of unencrypted email on hard drives purchased on the secondary market.
• Development of computer forensic tools for identifying and performing data mining on stored email messages.

Useful Resources

Creating S/MIME and SMIMEA keys