CyLab researchers have developed many tools and technologies to help increase the security and privacy of our digital world. Below are a few highlighted demos, prototypes, and open-sourced code of some of those tools.
State of the art password meter
Researchers in CyLab developed a state of the art password meter that offers real-time feedback and advice to help people create better passwords.
- Test out the password meter.
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Read the paper about the password meter, which received a “Best Paper Award” at the CHI 2017 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
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Read the news story about the password meter.
Short-form Security Attitude Quiz
This six-item scale for assessing people’s security attitudes, developed by CyLab researchers, was created to improve strategies aimed at encouraging people to develop better security practices.
- Take the security attitude quiz.
- Read the paper about the security quiz, which was presented at the Fifteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security.
Password game
We know that users often create poor passwords. But is this because they don't know what makes a password strong or weak, or for another reason? CyLab researchers created a password quiz to better understand users’ perceptions of password security.
- Take the quiz.
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Read the paper about the password game, which was presented at the CHI 2016 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, where it received an Honorable Mention.
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Read the CMU News story about the paper.
PrivacyGrade
Many apps exhibit odd privacy-related behaviors. Does a flashlight app really need to access your microphone? A team of CyLab researchers created a website that assigns privacy grades to Android apps.
- Check out the privacy grades.
- Read the CMU News story about PrivacyGrade.
EverCrypt
A team including CyLab researchers developed the world’s first industrial-strength cryptoraphic library, a set of code that can be used to protect data and is guaranteed to protect against the most popular classes of cyberattacks.
- Download the open-sourced code.
- Read the CMU News story about EverCrypt.
Coconut
When app developers are coding data requests, privacy is oftentimes an afterthought. That motivated a team of CyLab researchers to create Coconut, an integrated development environment plugin that nudges developers to think a bit harder about user privacy when coding data requests.
- Give Coconut a try.
- Read the CMU News story about Coconut.
Chromium Taint Tracking
CyLab researchers developed a modified version of Google’s Chromium web browser that tracks taint information of strings, increasing the security by preventing attackers from executing commands on an unsuspecting user’s computer.
- Check out the open-source code.
- Read the CMU News story about Chromium taint tracking.