SUPA: Strewn user-preserved authentication**

Objective – This paper presents the high level conceptual architecture of SUPA, an authentication system that would allow a system to authenticate users without having its own repository of users’ secret identification related data. Methodology/Technique – Central storage and management of user credentials or passwords leave a single tempting repository for the attackers. If the credentials are not stored by a system at all, there will be no stored ‘vault’ to allure the attackers. At the same time, there will be no single resource that holds the credentials of all users of a system. SUPA enables a system to authenticate itself users without having their secret credentials stored in it. Findings – The proposed authentication system uses the features of asymmetric encryption as part of its authentication process. Novelty – SUPA eliminates the requirement of secret user credentials at the system end, the user credentials are retained within the end-user’s devices

The Bryant & Stratton-Rhode Island Commercial School

Portraits of the faculty from 1916 with their names and credentials are presented in this brochure

Privacy-Preserving Trust Management Mechanisms from Private Matching Schemes

Cryptographic primitives are essential for constructing privacy-preserving communication mechanisms. There are situations in which two parties that do not know each other need to exchange sensitive information on the Internet. Trust management mechanisms make use of digital credentials and certificates in order to establish trust among these strangers. We address the problem of choosing which credentials are exchanged. During this process, each party should learn no information about the preferences of the other party other than strictly required for trust establishment. We present a method to reach an agreement on the credentials to be exchanged that preserves the privacy of the parties. Our method is based on secure two-party computation protocols for set intersection. Namely, it is constructed from private matching schemes.Comment: The material in this paper will be presented in part at the 8th DPM International Workshop on Data Privacy Management (DPM 2013

Teacher Credentials and Student Achievement in High School: A Cross-Subject Analysis with Student Fixed Effects

We use data on statewide end-of-course tests in North Carolina to examine the relationship between teacher credentials and student achievement at the high school level. The availability of test scores in multiple subjects for each student permits us to estimate a model with student fixed effects, which helps minimize any bias associated with the non-random distribution of teachers and students among classrooms within schools. We find compelling evidence that teacher credentials affect student achievement in systematic ways and that the magnitudes are large enough to be policy relevant. As a result, the uneven distribution of teacher credentials by race and socio-economic status of high school students -- a pattern we also document -- contributes to achievement gaps in high school.