This talk discusses practical aspects of recent developments of the scientific community in the area of network covert and side channels.The talk will highlight new covert channel techniques which cannot be entirely prevented with state of the art techniques as well as it will discuss side channels in networks (including building automation networks) as a subset of covert channels. Covert and side channels not only allow policy-breaking communication (e.g., for journalists or botnets) but additionally allow the remote monitoring of persons in buildings — a problem that is linked to the sensitive field of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) and eHealth. Using these techniques, future attackers can monitor inhabitants in buildings, can adapt their covert channels automatically to new circumstances (e.g., change firewall rules or statistical changes within the network traffic), and can dynamically route in covert channel overlay networks.
Steffen Wendzel is a 3rd year PhD student at the University of Hagen and a researcher at the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences. He is author of various scientific/professional papers and four IT-related books. His latest book “Tunnel und verdeckte Kanäle im Netz” (Springer-Vieweg) deals with network covert channels. His research interests comprise network covert channels, network protocol engineering and TCP/IP protocols, network security, administration and programming of Linux/Unix/BSD systems, and building automation security.