Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

This state-of-the-art laboratory supports the Research Program entitled "Network Security with Automatic Mitigation of Disruptive Traffic, Attack Containment, and Intrusion Detection." This laboratory provides graduate students with a secure and controlled environment to test network security solutions. In particular, this laboratory has a wireless component where communication channels are set up in a secret and undetectable fashion. These side-channels of communication represent the means for concealed exchange of information that results invisible to network traffic monitors and tapping devices.In this laboratory, graduate students also conduct research on innovative paradigms to detect, mitigate, or stop the propagation of malicious code such as viruses and worms, which infect network equipment and host computers. Real viruses and worms are unleashed within controlled scenarios that allow the dissection of cleverly crafted attacks including polymorphic and encrypted packets.This laboratory represents an important setting toward the protection of the Canadian network infrastructures, and impact directly on any computer application that makes use of the Internet such as health care, telephony, Web transactions, rescue operations, and emergency response procedures.