Foundations of Secure Computation (NATO SCIENCE SERIES: COMPUTERS & SYSTEMS SCIENCES) (Nato a S I Series Series III, Computer and Systems Sciences)

In recent years a global computational infrastructure has been established. This and the advent of programming languages like Java supporting mobile distributed computing has posed a great challenge to the computer science community. The global infrastructure will support commerce, medicine, and government, but it can only do so safely if communication and computing can be secured against catastrophic failure and malicious interference. Several authoritative studies have shown that the global software infrastructure is now at risk and the risk is increasing over time. Additionally the ability to apply software solutions to many pressing problems is blocked by collective inability to produce software in which users and builders have a high degree of confidence.

The capability to secure the infrastructure rests on mathematical foundations for programming languages and communications systems. The work on semantics is thus an essential part of the summer school. There is a need to extend the semantics to take into account system performance and responsiveness. Besides constructive type theory, work on linear logic, game semantics, and feasible mathematics are critical disciplines.

In recent years a global computational infrastructure has been established. This and the advent of programming languages like Java supporting mobile distributed computing has posed a great challenge to the computer science community. The global infrastructure will support commerce, medicine, and government, but it can only do so safely if communication and computing can be secured against catastrophic failure and malicious interference. Several authoritative studies have shown that the global software infrastructure is now at risk and the risk is increasing over time. Additionally the ability to apply software solutions to many pressing problems is blocked by collective inability to produce software in which users and builders have a high degree of confidence. The capability to secure the infrastructure rests on mathematical foundations for programming languages and communications systems. The work on semantics is thus an essential part of the summer school. There is a need to extend the semantics to take into account system performance and responsiveness. Besides constructive type theory, work on linear logic, game semantics, and feasible mathematics are critical disciplines.