Encryption is the single most used technology to guarantee privacy because it is effective, secure, and easy to use. But what is really hidden? The answer may surprise you. While the privacy invasion aspects of machine learning and data mining have huge awareness in respect to marketing and social media data, the usage of machine learning and it's effects on current techniques to hide data such as encryption is relatively unexplored in comparison.
Recently I wrote a tool called Pacumen that is used to analyze encrypted traffic and infer information about it without decryption. The type of information it can extract is "what application's are being used over this tunnel?" and in some cases "what websites are being accessed?". Essentially it is a framework for answering yes/no questions about network traffic that doesn't require looking at the content of the traffic.
We will discuss the various security aspects of what you can expect from encryption, and more importantly what you can not expect. In addition we will talk about (at a high level) some of the mathematical tools available to a user that is trying to approach a similar problem, and approaches to further research and development.
Brandon Niemczyk was born in Chicago. He has been writing code since he was a child with his first 386 modifying the QBASIC game gorillas.bas. He later moved on to write GIS software in Orlando, FL and then wandered into information security after a brief stint writing accounting software. His interests are machine learning, mathematics, motorcycles, games, reverse engineering, and family. Brandon has previously spoken at multiple conferences on machine learning and information security.
Evan Blair is a Co-Founder and the Chief Operating Officer at ZeroFOX. Prior to that, Evan was a member of the Accuvant Leadership Team where he led multi-million dollar Partner Solutions practice. At the time of his departure, Accuvant was the 2nd largest privately held cyber security solutions provider, had recognized over $1 billion in revenue since inception, and had capabilities with over 175 global partners. In 2008, Evan joined Foster at Baltimore-based cyber start-up Ciphent, where he was responsible for executing the marketing and sales strategy for the organization. Charged with the ultimate goals of increasing sales, profitability, and revenue, Evan's department supported the company's three-year revenue growth rate of nearly 1000%. Previously, Evan help financial and business development roles at Application Security Inc. He began his career as a financial analyst with Dresdner Kleinwort in Manhattan, NY and holds a BA in Economics from Wake Forest University.