research-article

FlashPatch: Spreading Software Updates over Flash Drives in Under-connected Regions

Authors:

Henry Corrigan-Gibbs,

Jay ChenAuthors Info & Claims

ACM DEV-5 '14: Proceedings of the Fifth ACM Symposium on Computing for Development

Pages 1 - 10

https://doi.org/10.1145/2674377.2674384

Published: 05 December 2014 Publication History

Abstract

Computers in developing regions often lack the Internet connectivity and network bandwidth necessary to consistently download and apply software updates and security patches. However, even unconnected computers contract viruses and malware through the sharing of USB flash drives and other removable media. This paper introduces FlashPatch, a system for distributing software updates to computers in such areas by having software updates "piggy-back" on the existing flow of flash drives in rural regions. FlashPatch requires no changes in user behavior once the software has been installed. We implemented a proof-of-concept FlashPatch prototype and evaluated it in a field trial in Ghana. We present data on the prevalence and spread of viruses at our study site and offer experimental evidence of FlashPatch's effectiveness from a nine-month field trial. We found that FlashPatch provided additional antivirus protection to 30% of the machines in our study without imposing any tangible burdens on the system owners.

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Nelimarkka MRancy JGrygiel JSemaan B(2019)(Re)Design to Mitigate Political PolarizationProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/33592433:CSCW(1-25)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2019
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Shi LTomlinson BTang JCutrell EMcDuff DVenolia GJohns PRowan K(2019)Accessible Video CallingProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/33592333:CSCW(1-22)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2019
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Dev HKarahalios KSundaram H(2019)Quantifying Voter Biases in Online PlatformsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/33592223:CSCW(1-27)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2019
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Index Terms

FlashPatch: Spreading Software Updates over Flash Drives in Under-connected Regions
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
2. Security and privacy
  1. Systems security
    1. Operating systems security

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

ACM DEV-5 '14: Proceedings of the Fifth ACM Symposium on Computing for Development

December 2014

142 pages

ISBN:9781450329361

DOI:10.1145/2674377

General Chairs:
Anitha Kannan
Microsoft Research
,
Krishnaram Kenthapadi
Microsoft Research
,
Shankar Kalyanaraman
Facebook
,
Program Chairs:
Marshini Chetty
University of Maryland, College Park
,
Vanessa Frias-Martinez
University of Maryland, College Park

Copyright © 2014 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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Published: 05 December 2014

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ACM DEV-5

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ACM DEV-5: Annual Symposium on Computing for Development

December 5 - 6, 2014

California, San Jose, USA

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ACM DEV-5 '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 11 of 37 submissions, 30%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 52 of 164 submissions, 32%

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Cited By

Nelimarkka MRancy JGrygiel JSemaan B(2019)(Re)Design to Mitigate Political PolarizationProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/33592433:CSCW(1-25)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3359243
Shi LTomlinson BTang JCutrell EMcDuff DVenolia GJohns PRowan K(2019)Accessible Video CallingProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/33592333:CSCW(1-22)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3359233
Dev HKarahalios KSundaram H(2019)Quantifying Voter Biases in Online PlatformsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/33592223:CSCW(1-27)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3359222
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Vashistha AAnderson RMare SZegura E(2018)Examining Security and Privacy Research in Developing RegionsProceedings of the 1st ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies10.1145/3209811.3209818(1-14)Online publication date: 20-Jun-2018
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