Computer Science | Grinnell College

Thursday, September 27, 2018
4:15 p.m. in Science 3821
Refreshments at 4:00 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Science 3817)

Antonio Bianchi, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at The University of Iowa, presents this Thursday Extra.

Mobile application markets, such as the Google's Play Store and the Apple's App Store, receive thousands of new applications every day. Ideally, all these apps should be properly vetted to find both security-relevant programming mistakes. Unfortunately, the sheer amount of the submitted code rules out the possibility of using human experts to analyze it. Consequently, researchers have proposed and implemented different techniques to analyze automatically mobile applications.

In this talk, Bianchi will talk about his research using automated analysis techniques to detect security issues in existing Android applications. In particular, he will present his work in detecting Android applications implementing vulnerable authentication schemas. He will also discuss some of the currently open problems in the field and future research directions.

Join us at the CS Table on Tuesday, September 20, in JRC 224B. We will discuss the conflict between privacy and the internet of things (IoT).

The first two articles describe a Portland-based startup installing IoT devices in rentals. The company also has a promotional video I recommend watching.

• The Internet of Anything: The Startup Bringing the Smart Home to Apartment Renters. Klint Finley, Wired.
• This Start-Up Brings the Internet of Things to Millennial Renters. Zach Dundas, Portland Monthly.
• Promotional video

• Companies need to share how they use our data. Here are some ideas. Stacey Higginbotham, Fortune.
• Reading 4 is a long report from the FTC on IoT privacy. I recommend reading the legislative recommendations on page 47. Internet of Things: Privacy & Security in a Connected World. FTC Staff Report.

Computer science table (CS Table) is a weekly meeting of Grinnell College community members (students, faculty, staff, etc.) interested in discussing topics related to computing and computer science. CS Table meets Tuesdays from 12:00-1:00pm in JRC 224B. Contact the CS faculty for the weekly reading. Students on meal plans, faculty, and staff are expected to cover the cost of their meals. Visitors to the College and students not on meal plans can charge their meals to the department.