Ongoing research and development on information protection

Topics related to protecting information stored in computer systems have recently become a very popular subject for research; there appear to be at least twenty major ongoing research and advanced development projects and perhaps twelve smaller efforts in the general area. in addition to these research projects several different manufacturers are developing protection features for their commercial products, and many different government agencies have begun actively worrying about how to secure sensitive information already being (or about to be) processed by existing computer installations. The following paragraphs describe all of the current projects I know about that are exploring new areas. Much of the work described here is government sponsored, and that work is largely under the Department of Defense. The topics are categorized by the organization performing the work; the organizations appear in no particular order. As an aid to fitting together the information, the report begins with a brief summary of the different kinds of activities being pursued, with references to the later, more explicit project descriptions.