Privacy in the Smart Grid and Multi Party Computations

The Smart Grid will enable users to monitor their energy consumption at a much lower level of granularity than the legacy grid. Such detailed information along with time-of-day billing can on the one hand allow consumers to control their energy consumption in order to minimize expenditure but on the other hand, if it falls into the wrong hands, can reveal insights into the daily activities of the user e.g., which appliance is used at what times, how many people use the facility and if/when they are away from home. An ideal resolution to this problem would protect the privacy of the users by ensuring that the profiles are revealed to no one other than the consumer but at the same time be used to calculate the billed amount at the end of the billing period by the supplier.

The role of Multi Party Computations in modern privacy protection schemes has been well established. Privacy is preserved by using algorithms that allow operation on sensitive data without it ever being revealed to any of the participating entities. Such a mechanism which operates without the need for a trusted third party shows promise when considered in the context of the consumer - distributor - supplier chain of communication where detailed energy consumption information is available only to the relevant party (consumer) yet at the same time allowing the distributor and supplier to carry out their billing activities.

The real challenge here is to come up with just such a mechanism and be able to perform the operations using the limited resources of a smart meter. That's what I am working on these days. Wish me luck :)

Addicted to change?

I left my job in favour of masters in Hamburg because I needed change. Then I started looking for thesis options elsewhere because, that's right, I needed change. I know change is good but I keep wondering, am I addicted to it?

Ubuntu bug

What next :P ?

Nauseating

With all the brouhaha about Zardari jokes and their being branded as anti-democratic propaganda :P I thought I should have a peek at the now famous Cyber Crime bill. While I am neither a law expert nor did I expect to understand all of it, I did stumble upon some interesting stuff. For example under the Offenses and Punishments chapter:

CHAPTER-II
OFFENCES AND PUNISHMENTS

ll. Misuse of encryption. -- Whoever for the purpose of commission of an offence or concealment of incriminating evidence knowingly and willfully encrypts any incriminating communication or data contained in electronic system relating to that crime or incriminating evidence, commits the offence of misuse of encryption shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both.

So does this mean that if I sent Zardari jokes I can be jailed? And if I encrypt them I can be jailed even more? Other questions that also come to mind are: How will they break the encryption in the first place? Do those idiots even know how to use a computer? Have they ever seen one?

Then I found this in a news item by Dawn (13.07.2009):

An official announcement by the interior ministry said that the government was launching a campaign against circulation of what it called ill-motivated and concocted stories through emails and text messages against civilian leadership and security forces.

.....A senior official of the ministry said: ‘Sending indecent message is a crime under the Cyber Crime Act and liable to punishment.’

.....Under the Cyber Crime Act, violators could be jailed for 14 years, besides confiscation of their property. Similarly, any Pakistani living abroad and violating provisions of the act may be charged and will be liable to deportation to Pakistan.

Under the campaign, all Internet Service Providers would be checked physically by the FIA on a daily basis.

Let us forget the humongous 14 year prison time for a moment or the definition of 'indecent message' :P. What bothers me the most is that the FIA is allowed by law to inspect and record all internet traffic going through an ISP on a daily basis. WOW. While I find it hard to believe that the FIA possess the technical know how and resources needed for such an endeavour, I am distressed by the ease with which they can implicate thousands if not millions of internet users in the country. The democratic government's lack of respect for freedom of expression and their complete disregard for privacy is a different yet equally sad story.

Guess it's back to Faraz jokes, eh? :P

Do check out the Cyber Stalking section in Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance, 2007. It's hilarious :)

Garmi in Deutschland

Mercury hit 28°C (feels like 34 ) in Hamburg today. Back in the old country (:P) this meant business as usual but it's a totally different ball game over here. I am not one to complain about the heat but matters become worse when you don't have air conditioning or even fans in your room. It kind of reminds me of those 6 hour 'breakdowns' when all you could do was sweat after the UPS died on you.

Within the student circle, other than the usual summertime activities like out door barbecues and cycling and bird watching and bunking classes and cursing the RAs and what not, there is this unusual exchange of notes on how hot it is today and how it compares to our home countries and who is 'man enough' to handle the heat.

A Russian friend of mine asked me if I felt it was too hot today. I sad yes. She retorted, "Why? You should be used to such temperatures. :P" As it turns out, she was getting back at me for saying something similar about her feeling cold in winter :)

I had two 'deliverables' to finish today and the heat is normally a good enough excuse to drop all pretenses of even wanting to work but this was a matter of izzat :P. So naturally, I spent the whole day cramped up in front of the computer trying to suppress compiler warnings :P. It was like that time when the generator at my old workplace had gone kaput and there was no air conditioning for weeks. The only relief came at the end of the day when I used to go running down to my Khyber and turned on her trusty AC :)

Panoramas continue - Hamburg

Last week SBA came to visit. Together we did a months worth of sightseeing within a week's time. Tourism in the fast lane, eh? On one of our adventures we went to a well known church tower from where you can get a really awesome view of Hamburg port and city. The camera deprived photographer that I have been for about half a year now, I took SBA's camera and made a round around the tower with the camera in stitch mode. Later SBA stitched the pics and the result was a shiny 9MB file that was simply breathtaking. Later we used the same control I used for the Gawader panorama and produced this. I really like it. Rather, I'm lovin' it :)

Link: Hamburg Panorama

People

It's funny how people act and react in some situations. For the last few months there have been complaints in our hostel that people's newspapers are being stolen :P
There were a couple of emails on the email group and the matter seemed to have been resolve until this email. Hopefully the newspaper thief will pay heed this time or be prepared for the consequences.

To the person taking my Newspaper,

it has come to my attention that the concept of private property is not one Students living here are familiar with. And that is something i am completely in peace with, everything should be everybody's.
And if you, who keeps taking my newspaper, hold reading a newspaper in such high regard to the point that you would go low enough to steal it, that's also cool. And if you don't have the money to buy your own newspaper, that is also something i can understand. I mean newspapers are an extra expense/luxury for student.
So here is my proposal, take the newspaper in the morning (i don't get up early anyway), read it, enjoy it, take your time, but just drop it off at my place (room 3.6) after you are done (hopefully during the same day). I'll see it as nothing more than a friendly gesture of a neighbor dropping of my newspaper for me, and reading it on the way.

No hard feeling,
Your fellow Trifter

p.s. if i don't get my newspaper delivered to me daily, I WILL hunt you down, and there will be pain in store for you. (I mean it)

It can't be me because I can't even finish reading one page let alone a whole newspaper in German :)