Search for: All records

Maintaining confidential information control in software is a persistent security problem where failure means secrets can be revealed via program behaviors. Information flow control techniques traditionally have been based on static or symbolic analyses — limited in scalability and specialized to particular languages. When programs do leak secrets there are no approaches to automatically repair them unless the leak causes a functional test to fail. We present our vision for HyperGI, a genetic improvement framework that detects, localizes and repairs information leakage. Key elements of HyperGI include (1) the use of two orthogonal test suites, (2) a dynamic leak detection approach which estimates and localizes potential leaks, and (3) a repair component that produces a candidate patch using genetic improvement. We demonstrate the successful use of HyperGI on several programs with no failing functional test cases. We manually examine the resulting patches and identify trade-offs and future directions for fully realizing our vision. 

This paper analyzes the computational practices that four 7th and 8th grade students engaged in when learning geometric transformations in two different online block-based programming environments. The data sources include video footage of students’ interviews in Zoom where they shared their screens and cameras. The findings determined that students utilized in particular, decomposition and pattern recognition as important computational thinking practices required for learning in STEM disciplines. The paper also describes the changes made in how research method, data collection, and analysis configured opportunities to study computational thinking in remote locations due to the restrictions brought on by COVID-19. We identified three main challenges in the transition to online research: (a) recruiting research participants which included instituting necessary revisions to ethics protocols; (b) rethinking data gathering and analysis techniques along with interactions with participants in virtual settings; (c) dealing with glitches associated with technologies and virtual communication media in just-in-time ways. We conclude that even given the challenges with researching during COVID-19, there are still opportunities for rich, robust research in online settings. 

In previous papers, Lehr and Sicker (2018a,b) argued that the changing character of our telecommunications infrastructure called for a new regulatory approach, with a new Communications Act to define the duties and authorities of a reconceptualized FCC (what we call newFCC in this paper). Today's Internet ecosystem is comprised of multiple digital network platforms organized into a multi-layer architecture. Lower layer IP platforms provided by access and backbone ISPs collectively support the Internet, on which complementors can build higher-layer platforms, such as the platforms provided by powerful firms such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Apple. These firms control and operate multiple platforms within the larger Internet ecosystem. When dominant platform providers pursue multi-platform strategies in an effort to capture or control a market, such strategies confound current methods for defining markets and assessing market power. This paper draws on the layered platform nature of the Internet ecosystem, as described in Claffy and Clark (2014), to illustrate how this layered character of today’s Internet ecosystem calls for new regulatory authority. This paper draws on the layered platform model to scope the duties for an agency (or agencies) with sector-specific expertise.