SHIKHAR SAKHUJA [email protected] | Github.Com/Shikhar394 | Linkedin.Com/In/Shikhar394 | (+86) 1881-650-1969

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

SHIKHAR SAKHUJA Shikhar.Sakhuja@Nyu.Edu | Github.Com/Shikhar394 | Linkedin.Com/In/Shikhar394 | (+86) 1881-650-1969 SHIKHAR SAKHUJA [email protected] | github.com/shikhar394 | linkedin.com/in/shikhar394 | (+86) 1881-650-1969 CURRICULUM VITAE I am a senior at New York University Shanghai. I am interested in the overarching field of Security and Privacy with a focus on social network analysis, data-driven security and empirical-based measurements. I am passionate about teaching and working on projects with a social impact. EDUCATION New York University (NYU) Shanghai, Shanghai, China August ’15 - May ’19 Major: B.S. Computer Science GPA: 3.78/4.0 | Major GPA: 3.86/4.0 Minors: Cybersecurity and Mathematics NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, New York June ’17 - August ’18 Coursework and research in Cybersecurity and Operating Systems design St. Columba’s School, New Delhi, India July ‘15 Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, English and Computer Science Top 1% of graduating class RESEARCH EXPERIENCE Undergraduate Research Assistant, Center for Cybersecurity, NYU Tandon Advisor: Damon McCoy June ’18 - Present • Scraped and analyzed the political advertisements released on social media website using Python. Scraped over 500,000 unique ads stored on PostgreSQL database. Open-sourced the data and findings. • Published author of An Analysis of Facebook’s Archive of Ads with Political Content. • Built labeling tool using Python (Flask), HTML, CSS and JavaScript specific for our data to crowdsource and speed up labeling task. Increased labeling efficiency by over 500%. • The research was featured in NYTimes, CNBC, Fortune and several other prestigious media outlets. Undergraduate Research Assistant, Center for Cybersecurity, NYU Tandon Advisor: Justin Cappos June ’17 - May ’18 • Worked on further development in securing updates for automobiles through the project Uptane. • Used Python to implement hybrid encryption (RSA and AES-128) to encrypt updates, integrated security features for defense against attack vectors rising from a compromised repository and increased test coverage for the project Uptane by 5%. • Researched novel techniques to build a compromise-resilient framework to update IoT devices in the medical industry and the sphere of Industrial Control Systems. • Helped to redesign the graduate-level course Application Security offered at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Course to be offered both online and in-person students (1000+ students). TEACHING EXPERIENCE Learning Assistant, NYU Shanghai Fall ’16 | Spring ’17 | Fall ’18 • Course: Introduction to Computer Science. • Team of 2 LAs responsible for assisting with in-class assignments, homework, holding office hours, and weekly review session for over 120 students. Teaching Assistant (TA), NYU Tandon Fall ’17 | Spring ’18 | Summer ’18 • Course: Data Structures and Algorithms. • Team of 6 TAs responsible for leading two labs per week, grading homework and labs, making lab assignments, holding office hours and helping with other administrative tasks for over 400 students. PUBLICATIONS An Analysis of Facebook’s Archive of Ads with Political Content July ‘18 By Laura Edelson, Shikhar Sakhuja, Damon McCoy (NYU). Published on Github. A Comparison and Analysis of Political Advertisements Across Social Media Platforms In progress By Laura Edelson, Shikhar Sakhuja, Ratan Dey, Damon McCoy (NYU) SELECT PERSONAL PROJECTS Distributed Systems Coursework (GoLang – Code available on GitHub) May ‘18 • Implemented MapReduce, Viewstamped Replication, and Raft for the graduate-level Distributed Systems course. The only undergraduate in the class. • Developed a fault-tolerant distributed Twitter Clone (Web Application). Designed front end and back end in GoLang, HTML, JavaScript and CSS. Used GoRPC and REST API. MalURL (Python – Code available on GitHub) May ‘17 • Employed Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing algorithms using concepts in Cybersecurity to detect malicious websites by its plain-text URL. • Breaks down URL into lexicographic, domain-based and reputation features. • Achieved an accuracy rate of 98% on our data (5000 malicious websites and 5000 benign websites). Voice[H]over (Python and Java in Processing – Code available on GitHub) February ‘17 • Won the Assistive Technology Track amongst over 1500 participants at HackNYU 2017. • Used Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing algorithms and modules. • Project enables those with Cerebral Palsy and other immobilizing or speech disabilities to talk using a virtual keyboard that can be controlled with a laser or gaze. Created for 10% of the price of the market competitors. TALKS AND POSTER PRESENTATIONS 5th Annual Diversity Summer Student Research Conference, NYU Courant July ’18 • Presented An Analysis of Facebook’s Archive of Ads with Political Content. Poster Presentation, Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP), NYU Tandon July ’18 • An Analysis of Facebook’s Archive of Ads with Political Content. • Poster selected from over 200 posters to be featured in the NYU Tandon library. Research Symposium, SURP, NYU Tandon August ’17 • Presented Uptane: Securing Software Updates for Automobiles. Poster Presentation, SURP, NYU Tandon July ’17 • Uptane: Securing Software Updates for Automobiles. • Best poster award from over 150 posters. TECHNICAL AND LANGUAGE SKILLS • Experienced in Object Oriented Design and in working with languages such as Python, C, C++, GoLang, Arduino, Java in Processing and MIPS. • Proficient in English, Hindi and Mandarin. Conversational in Punjabi and Urdu. SERVICE AND LEADERSHIP ACTIVITIES Head Learning Assistant, Academic Resource Center, NYU Shanghai August ’18 - Present • Leading a team of 20 learning assistants for the CS department. • Responsible for improving communication between the CS faculty and the CS learning assistants, building the LA community and ensuring high standards of tutoring. • Interviewing new LAs for the following semester. Recruiting 10 new LAs for the Spring semester. Founder and Advisor, CS + Social Good Club, NYU Shanghai August ’18 - Present • Founded the premier humanitarian engineering club at NYU Shanghai. 60+ members from STEM, Social Sciences and Arts fields in its first month. • Recruited the leadership for the club and defined vision for the club. • Working in close liaison with other clubs at NYU Shanghai and 13 CS + Social Good clubs across the US. • Working to host a semester long lecture series and a CS + Social Good hackathon. Head Student Photographer and Videographer, NYU Shanghai August ’16 - Present • Working under the University Communications Department, team of 10 photographers, chosen from the entire university. • Covered over 20 events as the photographer and have albums uploaded on the NYU Shanghai website. • Interviewed new photographers. Recruited 5 new photographers for the team. • Lead development of initiatives and projects that successfully expanded NYU Shanghai's online presence. 1000+ followers on social media websites such as Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. HONORS AND ACHIEVEMENTS • NYU Dean’s Honors List, 2015-18. • NYU Futures Global Scholars Award for contributions to the NYU Shanghai community, 2015-18. • NYU Recognition Award for Exceptional Academic Performance and Campus Involvement, 2015-18. • Winner of Assistive Technology track at HackNYU 2017. • Selected as one of the 1000 scholars to participate in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit 2017. REFERENCES Damon McCoy Assistant Professor, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, New York University http://damonmccoy.com/ [email protected] Keith Ross Dean of Engineering and Computer Science, NYU Shanghai & Leonard J. Shustek Professor of Computer Science, CSE Department, NYU https://www.nyu.edu/projects/keithwross/ [email protected] Gustavo Sandoval Industry Professor, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, New York University https://engineering.nyu.edu/faculty/gustavo-sandoval [email protected] .
Recommended publications
  • Auto-ISAC Community Call Is Not Considered an Endorsement
    Hi All, Please find attached the Weekly Automotive Industry Report covering April 3April 8. Auto-ISAC ThisMonthly week’s report Community includes articles Call on: Toyota partnering with Microsoft on a new cloud-based division led by the CIO, that builds chips for self-driving cars, Hyundai11 July unveiling 2018 its connected vehicle “roadmap,” and, Toyota planning to open a new autonomous vehicle research center in Michigan. Audio: 1-877-885-1087 Code: 9972152385 You Skypecan find link: past https://autoisac.adobeconnect.com/communitycall reports on site. / Please let me know if you have any questions. Have a great weekend. TLP Green: May be shared within Auto-ISAC Community. Josh TLP Green: May be shared within the Auto-ISAC Community. 6 July 2018 1 Agenda Time (ET) Topic Welcome 10:00 Why we’re here Expectations for this community Auto-ISAC Update 10:10 Auto-ISAC overview Heard around the community Featured Speakers 10:20 Justin Cappos, Professor at New York University Sebastien Awwad, Lead Developer for Uptane Around the Room 10:45 Sharing around the virtual room 10:55 Closing Remarks TLP Green: May be shared within the Auto-ISAC Community. 6 July 2018 2 Welcome Welcome to our community! Purpose: These monthly Auto-ISAC Community Meetings are an opportunity for you, our Members and connected vehicle ecosystem stakeholders, to: Stay informed of Auto-ISAC activities Share information on key vehicle cybersecurity topics Participants: Auto-ISAC Members, Potential Members, Partners, Academia, Industry Stakeholders, and Government Agencies Classification Level: TLP Green, and “off the record” Agenda: Each meeting will have three core segments: 1) Auto-ISAC Update: Our operations team will overview key activities, outcomes, and intel trends 2) Featured Speaker: We will invite an industry leader to share relevant topics of interest.
    [Show full text]
  • Diplomat: Using Delegations to Protect Community Repositories
    Diplomat: Using Delegations to Protect Community Repositories Trishank Karthik Kuppusamy, Santiago Torres-Arias, Vladimir Diaz, and Justin Cappos, New York University https://www.usenix.org/conference/nsdi16/technical-sessions/presentation/kuppusamy This paper is included in the Proceedings of the 13th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI ’16). March 16–18, 2016 • Santa Clara, CA, USA ISBN 978-1-931971-29-4 Open access to the Proceedings of the 13th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI ’16) is sponsored by USENIX. Diplomat: Using Delegations to Protect Community Repositories Trishank Karthik Kuppusamy Santiago Torres-Arias Vladimir Diaz Justin Cappos Tandon School of Engineering, New York University Abstract software. Major repositories run by Adobe, Apache, Debian, Fedora, FreeBSD, Gentoo, GitHub, GNU Sa- Community repositories, such as Docker Hub, PyPI, vannah, Linux, Microsoft, npm, Opera, PHP, RedHat, and RubyGems, are bustling marketplaces that distribute RubyGems, SourceForge, and WordPress repositories software. Even though these repositories use common have all been compromised at least once [4,5,7,27,28,30, software signing techniques (e.g., GPG and TLS), at- 31,35,36,39–41,48,59,61,62,67,70,79,80,82,86,87,90]. tackers can still publish malicious packages after a server For example, a compromised SourceForge repository compromise. This is mainly because a community repos- mirror located in Korea distributed a malicious ver- itory must have immediate access to signing keys in or- sion of phpMyAdmin, a popular database administration der to certify the large number of new projects that are tool [79]. The modified version allowed attackers to gain registered each day.
    [Show full text]
  • Yash Srivastav
    Yash Srivastav SENIOR UNDERGRADUATE · COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur ċ (+91) 705-413-3662 | â [email protected] | 0 yashsriv.org | ¥ yashsriv | yashsriv EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS Year Degree Institution(Board) CGPA/% July’15 – Present B.Tech, CSE Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 9.05/10 2015 AISSCE – XII Birla High School, Kolkata (CBSE) 96.6% 2013 ICSE – X AG Church School, Kolkata (CISCE) 96.6% SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENTS 2015 All India Rank 105, Joint Entrance Exam Advanced (amongst 120,000 candidates) 2015 All India Rank 288, Joint Entrance Exam Main (amongst 1.3 million candidates) 2015 All India Rank 12, KVPY Scholarship WORK EXPERIENCE New York Office, IIT Kanpur India FULL STACK DEVELOPER, PROF. MANINDRA AGRAWAL May 2016 - Present • Summer Internship continued as a volunteer and peer mentor. • Worked on a scalable web application with an extensive technology stack. • Implemented Notifications, XSRF & XSSI Protection and a method to batch process api requests as part of the backend api. • Integrated ProseMirror into an existing Angular App • Reimplemented an entire Angular application as per the redux architecture. • Technologies used: Scala with Akka, Couchbase, Angular with TypeScript, Redux New York University New York City, USA SUMMER INTERN, PROF. JUSTIN CAPPOS May 2018 - July 2018 • Worked on setting up an one-shot ansible project to enable organizations to easily set up debian package rebuilding infrastructure. • Implemented three different microservices to orchestrate the entire setup. Also interacted with the reproducible-builds community toget design decisions approved. • Added support for ed25519 cryptographic keys to the supply chain security framework - in-toto. • Technologies Used: Ansible, Python, Perl, debian build tools Google Summer of Code OPENPRINTING, THE LINUX FOUNDATION Summer 2017 • Worked on the Common Printing Dialog Project.
    [Show full text]
  • Thinking Aloud About Confusing Code a Qualitative Investigation of Program Comprehension and Atoms of Confusion
    Thinking Aloud about Confusing Code A Qualitative Investigation of Program Comprehension and Atoms of Confusion Dan Gopstein Anne-Laure Fayard New York University New York University New York, USA New York, USA Sven Apel Justin Cappos Saarland University, Saarland Informatics Campus New York University Germany New York, USA ABSTRACT 1 INTRODUCTION Atoms of confusion are small patterns of code that have been em- Previous work on atoms of confusion [11] introduced a methodol- pirically validated to be difficult to hand-evaluate by programmers. ogy for discovering, measuring, and validating programmer misun- Previous research focused on defining and quantifying this phe- derstanding in a precise way. An atom of confusion is the smallest nomenon, but not on explaining or critiquing it. In this work, we snippet of code that will often confuse a programmer as to what address core omissions to the body of work on atoms of confusion, the code’s output is. Previous work measured correctness rates of focusing on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of programmer misunderstanding. programmers hand-evaluating confusing snippets and compared We performed a think-aloud study in which we observed pro- the rates to those for functionally equivalent code hypothesized to grammers, both professionals and students, as they hand-evaluated be less confusing. Between the minimality of the code snippet and confusing code. We performed a qualitative analysis of the data and its comparison against a control, the research on atoms of confusion found several surprising results, which explain previous results, was designed to be both precise and accurate. Gopstein et al. [11] outline avenues of further research, and suggest improvements of applied this protocol in an experiment with 73 participants and the research methodology.
    [Show full text]
  • Detecting Latent Cross-Platform API Violations
    Detecting Latent Cross-Platform API Violations Jeff Rasley Eleni Gessiou Tony Ohmannn Yuriy Brunn Shriram Krishnamurthi Justin Cappos Brown University New York University University of Massachusetts Providence, RI USA 02912 New York, NY USA 10003 Amherst, MA USA 01003 {jeffra, sk}@cs.brown.edu, [email protected], {ohmann, brun}@cs.umass.edu, [email protected] Abstract—Many APIs enable cross-platform system develop- documented — and undocumented — behavior of each library, ment by abstracting over the details of a platform, allowing including operating systems, browsers, etc., that may affect application developers to write one implementation that will run the application’s behavior every time new versions of those on a wide variety of platforms. Unfortunately, subtle differences in the behavior of the underlying platforms make cross-platform libraries are released. behavior difficult to achieve. As a result, applications using these The result of cross-platform failures is frustrating to program- APIs can be plagued by bugs difficult to observe before deploy- mers: applications using libraries behave in unpredictable ways. ment. These portability bugs can be particularly difficult to This is often discovered only after deployment, and sometimes diagnose and fix because they arise from the API implementation, the fix cannot even be implemented in the application itself. As the operating system, or hardware, rather than application code. this paper shows, even well-known and long-developed APIs This paper describes CheckAPI, a technique for detecting violations of cross-platform portability. CheckAPI compares an (such as POSIX and JavaScript) continue to exhibit serious application’s interactions with the API implementation to its in- portability bugs.
    [Show full text]
  • Securing Software Updates for Automobiles∗
    Uptane: Securing Software Updates for Automobiles∗ Trishank Karthik Akan Brown Sebastien Awwad Kuppusamy NYU Tandon School of NYU Tandon School of NYU Tandon School of Engineering Engineering Engineering [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Damon McCoy Russ Bielawski Cameron Mott NYU Tandon School of University of Michigan Southwest Research Institute Engineering [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Sam Lauzon André Weimerskirchy Justin Cappos University of Michigan University of Michigan, NYU Tandon School of [email protected] Lear Corporation Engineering [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT 26,27,29–31,33–37,39]. In one such case, a compromised Source- Forge mirror distributed a malicious version of phpMyAdmin, a Software update systems for automobiles can deliver significant popular database administration software [33]. The modified ver- benefits, but, if not implemented carefully, they could potentially sion allowed attackers to gain system access and remotely execute incur serious security vulnerabilities. Previous solutions for secur- PHP code on servers that installed the software. ing software updates consider standard attacks and deploy widely understood security mechanisms, such as digital signatures for the Automobiles introduced software updates more than a decade software updates, and hardware security modules (HSM) to sign ago, and today many electronic components in a vehicle can be up- software updates. However, no existing solution considers more dated by an automotive technician with a proper tool. However, advanced security objectives, such as resilience against a reposi- available update mechanisms played a crucial role in a variety of tory compromise, or freeze attacks to the vehicle’s update mech- published automotive related hacks, such as the recent study by anism, or a compromise at a supplier’s site.
    [Show full text]
  • Qualitative Analysis from Build It, Break It, Fix It
    Understanding security mistakes developers make: Qualitative analysis from Build It, Break It, Fix It Daniel Votipka, Kelsey R. Fulton, James Parker, Matthew Hou, Michelle L. Mazurek, and Michael Hicks University of Maryland {dvotipka,kfulton,jprider,mhou1,mmazurek,mwh}@cs.umd.edu Abstract developers [18,44,77] is evidence of the intense pressure to Secure software development is a challenging task requir- produce new services and software quickly and efficiently. As ing consideration of many possible threats and mitigations. such, we must be careful to choose interventions that work This paper investigates how and why programmers, despite a best in the limited time they are allotted. To do this, we must baseline of security experience, make security-relevant errors. understand the general type, attacker control allowed, and To do this, we conducted an in-depth analysis of 94 submis- ease of exploitation of different software vulnerabilities, and sions to a secure-programming contest designed to mimic the reasons that developers make them. That way, we can real-world constraints: correctness, performance, and security. examine how different approaches address the landscape of In addition to writing secure code, participants were asked vulnerabilities. to search for vulnerabilities in other teams’ programs; in to- This paper presents a systematic, in-depth examination tal, teams submitted 866 exploits against the submissions we (using best practices developed for qualitative assessments) considered. Over an intensive six-month period, we used itera- of vulnerabilities present in software projects. In particular, tive open coding to manually, but systematically, characterize we looked at 94 project submissions to the Build it, Break each submitted project and vulnerability (including vulnera- it, Fix it (BIBIFI) secure-coding competition series [66].
    [Show full text]
  • A Theory and Tools for Applying Sandboxes Effectively
    A Theory and Tools for Applying Sandboxes Effectively Michael Maass CMU-ISR-16-105 March 2016 Institute for Software Research School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Thesis Committee: Jonathan Aldrich (Co-chair) William L. Scherlis (Co-chair) Lujo Bauer Bruno Amizic (The Boeing Company) Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Copyright c 2016 Michael Maass This material is based upon work supported by the US Department of Defense through the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD(R&E)) under Contract HQ0034-13-D- 0004, the Army Research Office under Award No. W911NF-09-1-0273, the Air Force Research Laboratory under Award No. FA87501220139, the National Security Agency under Lablet Contract H98230-14-C- 0140, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. DGE- 1252522. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARL, ARO, ASD (R&E), NSA, or NSF. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Keywords: Sandboxing, software protection, supply chain security, Java sandbox, software engineering Abstract It is more expensive and time consuming to build modern software without extensive supply chains. Supply chains decrease these development risks, but typically at the cost of increased security risk. In particular, it is often difficult to understand or verify what a software component delivered by a third party does or could do.
    [Show full text]
  • 10 Build It, Break It, Fix It: Contesting Secure Development
    Build It, Break It, Fix It: Contesting Secure Development JAMES PARKER, MICHAEL HICKS, ANDREW RUEF, MICHELLE L. MAZUREK, DAVE LEVIN, and DANIEL VOTIPKA, University of Maryland, USA PIOTR MARDZIEL, Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley, USA KELSEY R. FULTON, University of Maryland, USA Typical security contests focus on breaking or mitigating the impact of buggy systems. We present the Build- it, Break-it, Fix-it (BIBIFI) contest, which aims to assess the ability to securely build software, not just break it. In BIBIFI, teams build specified software with the goal of maximizing correctness, performance, and security. The latter is tested when teams attempt to break other teams’ submissions. Winners are chosen from among the best builders and the best breakers. BIBIFI was designed to be open-ended—teams can use any language, tool, process, and so on, that they like. As such, contest outcomes shed light on factors that correlate with successfully building secure software and breaking insecure software. We ran three contests involving a total of 156 teams and three different programming problems. Quantitative analysis from these contests found that the most efficient build-it submissions used C/C++, but submissions coded in a statically type safe language were 11× less likely to have a security flaw than C/C++ submissions. Break-it teams that were also successful build-it teams were significantly better at finding security bugs. CCS Concepts: • Security and privacy → Software security engineering;•Social and professional topics 10 → Computing education;•Software and its engineering → Software development techniques; Additional Key Words and Phrases: Contest, security, education, software, engineering ACM Reference format: James Parker, Michael Hicks, Andrew Ruef, Michelle L.
    [Show full text]
  • Security Issues in Language-Based Sofware Ecosystems
    Security Issues in Language-based Sofware Ecosystems Ruturaj K. Vaidya1 Lorenzo De Carli2 Drew Davidson1 Vaibhav Rastogi3 1University of Kansas 2Worcester Polytechnic Institute 3University of Wisconsin, Madison ABSTRACT In this paper, we specifically study package management for Language-based ecosystems (LBE), i.e., software ecosystems based language-based ecosystems (LBEs), using the ecosystem of npm for on a single programming language, are very common. Examples in- JavaScript/Node.js and PyPI for Python as case studies. Packages clude the npm ecosystem for JavaScript, and PyPI for Python. These from these ecosystems form the backbone of software development environments encourage code reuse between packages, and incor- in those specific languages by hosting third-party code that is reused porate utilities—package managers—for automatically resolving in many different software projects. dependencies. However, the same aspects that make these systems There exists some prior work studying software repositories popular—ease of publishing code and importing external code—also such as mobile app stores like Google Play and Apple App Store, create novel security issues, which have so far seen little study. which serve consumers with full-fledged applications rather than We present an a systematic study of security issues that plague developers with re-usable code components, and OS package man- LBEs. These issues are inherent to the ways these ecosystems work agers such as RPM and Apt [8, 11, 13, 43, 44]. LBEs have received and cannot be resolved by fixing software vulnerabilities in either much less attention, even though LBEs are inherently different from the packages or the utilities, e.g., package manager tools, that build other software repositories.
    [Show full text]
  • Security and Customizability of Software Updates for Vehicles
    UPTANE Security and Customizability of Software Updates for Vehicles Trishank Karthik Kuppusamy, Lois Anne DeLong, and Justin Cappos widely accepted premise is that complex software frequently contains bugs that can be remotely exploited by attackers. When this software is on an electronic control unit (ECU) in a vehi- Acle, exploitation of these bugs can have life or death consequences. Since software for vehicles is likely to proliferate and grow more complex in time, the number of exploitable vulnerabilities will increase. As a result, manufacturers are keenly aware of the need to quickly and efficiently deploy updates so that software vulnera- bilities can be remedied as soon as possible. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MVT.2017.2778751 However, existing software-update security systems Date of publication: 1 February 2018 are not compromise resilient; if an attacker breaks into 66 ||| 1556-6072/18©2018IEEE IEEE VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE | MARCH 2018 Risks and Benefits of Connected Cars Vehicles are being connected to the Internet on a more frequent basis, providing owners with many benefits, e.g., facilitating in- fotainment systems, updating navigation maps, and enabling emergency response systems. However, the downside of con- necting vehicles to the Internet is that software vulnerabilities are exposed. If these vulnerabilities are remotely exploited, it could jeopardize vehicles and prove fa- tal to passengers and drivers. It is therefore critical for automobile manufacturers to deploy software updates over-the-air (SOTA) as soon as possible. Using SOTA, manufacturers can add to and im- prove on existing features, and, most importantly, fix software bugs on ECUs without incurring the high costs traditionally associ- ated with a manual recall.
    [Show full text]
  • Thinking Aloud About Confusing Code a Qualitative Investigation of Program Comprehension and Atoms of Confusion
    Thinking Aloud about Confusing Code A Qualitative Investigation of Program Comprehension and Atoms of Confusion Dan Gopstein Anne-Laure Fayard New York University New York University New York, USA New York, USA Sven Apel Justin Cappos Saarland University, Saarland Informatics Campus New York University Germany New York, USA ABSTRACT 1 INTRODUCTION Atoms of confusion are small patterns of code that have been em- Previous work on atoms of confusion [11] introduced a methodol- pirically validated to be difficult to hand-evaluate by programmers. ogy for discovering, measuring, and validating programmer misun- Previous research focused on defining and quantifying this phe- derstanding in a precise way. An atom of confusion is the smallest nomenon, but not on explaining or critiquing it. In this work, we snippet of code that will often confuse a programmer as to what address core omissions to the body of work on atoms of confusion, the code’s output is. Previous work measured correctness rates of focusing on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of programmer misunderstanding. programmers hand-evaluating confusing snippets and compared We performed a think-aloud study in which we observed pro- the rates to those for functionally equivalent code hypothesized to grammers, both professionals and students, as they hand-evaluated be less confusing. Between the minimality of the code snippet and confusing code. We performed a qualitative analysis of the data and its comparison against a control, the research on atoms of confusion found several surprising results, which explain previous results, was designed to be both precise and accurate. Gopstein et al. [11] outline avenues of further research, and suggest improvements of applied this protocol in an experiment with 73 participants and the research methodology.
    [Show full text]