Breaking the Barriers: High Performance Security for High Performance Computing

Abstract

This paper attempts to reconcile the high performance community's requirement of high performance with the need for security, and reconcile some accepted security approaches with the performance constraints of high-performance networks. We propose a new paradigm and challenge existing practice. The new paradigm is that not all domains need long-term forward data confidentiality. In particular, we take a fresh look at security for the high-performance domain, focusing particularly on component-based applications. We discuss the security and performance requirements of this domain in order to elucidate both the constraints and opportunities. We challenge the existing practice of high-performance networks sending communication in plaintext. We propose a security mechanism and provide metrics for analyzing both the security and performance costs.