The goal of our research is to enhance the functionality of distributed information systems by providing a standard service for managing trust.

uTrust (universal Trust) project is a first step on this path. The goal of uTrust is to develop a universal and formalized approach for trust management in a wide range of distributed information systems. Basing on this approach, the practical goal of the project is to provide a universal library of trust management functions.

In the future, trust management should become yet another, standard service of information security, such as authentication, authorization, privacy or integrity. For this to happen, it is necessary to define standard, universal primitives of trust management.

Existing approaches for managing trust are often tied to particular domains, too complex to compute or based on arbitrary assumptions. We will propose models of trust that will be:

• supported by formal analysis;
• computationally efficient;
• universal (applicable to a wide range of distributed information systems).

Currently, trust management models are almost impossible to compare, as the methodologies, the approaches or the outcomes are radically different. We will propose common evaluation methods, against which different approaches can be validated. The basis of these methods will be analysis and simulation using common models of adversaries and benchmarks for trust management algorithms.

In order to validate our approach in real-world applications, we will create a library of universal trust management methods, algorithms, and protocols. The library will be developed as an Open Source project and available to the entire community for development, testing and evaluation.

The uTrust project is funded by the Polish Ministry of Science and
Higher Education under the research grant N N516 4307 33.

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OVERVIEW
The ProtoTrust extension obtains its information by automatically performing the task that is performed by an auction user: by crawling parts of the auction site.
The results of the crawling provide input information for the improved trust management algorithms (uTrust library).


The user is presented with a graphical interface that gives access to a wealth of information that should support him in making the right decision.
Our extension uses Firefox mechanism to install and update it is easy accessible to all potential on-line auction users.
User can set her preferences to tune the Trust Management System. Preferences are applied after computation and can be changed repeatedly.


INSTALATION
Currently, we are fixing some errors in our product and preparing it to launch.
*.xpi files for firefox will be available soon (see dates).


DATES
A debug/testing week is planned from 15 to 22/03.
ProtoTrust official release is planned for next week.