Frontiers of Engineering: Reports on Leading-Edge Engineering from the 2007 Symposium (2008)
Chapter: Introduction--Ana I. Antón and John Dunagan
Introduction
ANA I. ANTÓN
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, North Carolina
JOHN DUNAGAN
Microsoft Research
Redmond, Washington
Improving the trustworthiness of computer systems is a very broad research challenge in computer science. The negative consequences of our current computing infrastructure are sufficiently severe that they are discussed in the popular press, in academic forums, and in the legislative arena. While identity theft is perhaps the most widespread negative consequence today, we also face threats ranging from vote fraud to failure to protect consumer privacy.
Two of the presentations in this session cover two public concerns that remain mostly unaddressed in practice: vote fraud and consumer privacy. The other two presentations in this session cover infrastructural approaches to improving computer trustworthiness: software engineering tools and new security technologies. In total, we hope these convey the breadth of effort being expended in the research community to develop computing technologies that merit the trust society wants to place in them.
