Stephen Chong

Research Interests

My research aims to help programmers write trustworthy programs. My primary area of interest is language-based information security: using programming language techniques to provide information security assurance.

Positions available

I currently have an opening for a postdoctoral fellowship in language-based and systems security. Also, I am looking for talented and motivated students to work with, both undergraduate and graduate. More information can be found here.

Recent publications

• Learning is Change in Knowledge: Knowledge-based Security for Dynamic Policies, CSF 2012 (with Askarov).
• Static Analysis for Efficient Hybrid Information-Flow Control, CSF 2011 (with Moore).
• Inference of Expressive Declassification Policies, Oakland 2011 (with Vaughan).
• Required Information Release, CSF 2010.
• A More Precise Security Type System for Dynamic Security Tests, PLAS 2010 (with Malecha).
• More...

Teaching

I will not be teaching a course in Fall 2012. In Spring 2013 I will teach CS 152, which considers the formal foundations of programming languages.

Previous courses:

• CS 61: Systems Programming and Computer Organization Fall 2010, Fall 2011.
• CS 152: Programming Languages Spring 2010.
• CS 252r: Advanced Topics in Programming Languages Fall 2009, Spring 2011, Spring 2012.

Current students

• Andrew Johnson
• Scott Moore
• Stefan Muller (undergrad)

Current projects

• CHILI:  Enabling the execution of code of unknown origin while guaranteeing that the code is not vulnerable to various classes of security attacks.
• Accrue:  Providing language-based security guarantees proportional to programmer effort.

Affiliations

• Center for Research on Computation and Society
• Programming Languages at Harvard
• Systems Research at Harvard (SYRAH)

Professional activities

• CSF 2012 General chair.
• SEC@SAC Program Committee.
• PLAS 2012 Program Committee.
• Past activities:
  • Co-chair of APLWACA 2010 (with Ben Livshits).
  • Co-chair of PLAS 2009 (with David Naumann).
  • Program committees: PPCloud 2011, FAST 2011, CCS 2010, CSF 2010, FCS-PrivMod 2010, WebApps '10, Bytecode 2010, ASIAN 2009, HotSec '09, FCS09, CSF 2008, PLAS 2007.

Brief bio

I completed a Ph.D. at Cornell University in August 2008, under the guidance of Andrew Myers. Prior to graduate school, I spent several years working as a consultant and contractor. I received a B.Sc.(Hons) and B.A. from Victoria University of Wellington, in Wellington, New Zealand. My wife, Kiran Gajwani, is a concentration advisor and lecturer in the Economics Department at Harvard.