Social Networks for Importing and Exporting Security

Online social networks are rapidly changing our lives. Their growing pervasiveness and the trust that we develop in online identities provide us with a new platform for security applications. Additionally, the integration of various sensors and mobile devices on social networks has shortened the separation between one’s physical and virtual (i.e. web) presences. We envisage that social networks will serve as the portal between the physical world and the digital world. However, challenges arise when using social networks in security applications; for example, how can one prove to a friend (or Friend) that your Facebook page belongs to you and not a man in the middle? Once you have proved this, how can you use it to create a secure channel between any device belonging to you and one belonging to your friend? We show how human interactive security protocols (HISPs) can greatly assist in both these areas and in general create a decentralised and user-oriented model of security. And we demonstrate that by using this security model we can quickly and efficiently bootstrap security for sharing information within a large group.