Michael J May

Michael J May

Algorithms and communication security researcher and senionr lecturer in computer software at Kinneret College

Posts by Collection

portfolio

Anti-Ransomware (ARW) Project

The Anti-Ransomware Project (ARW) developed an intelligent file processing engine that discovers and counteracts ransomware attacks on file systems. The tool applies the ideas of complex file events and file lifecycle analysis to intelligently save backups of files in a protected area and revert any changes performed by a ransomware attack tools.

Kinneret Software Engineering Capstone Templates

Professor Amir Tomer and Dr. Michael May developed the document templates here as part of the capstone project in software engineering at Kinneret Academic College. The templates were first developed in 2015 and were used until 2022. Our goal in developing the templates was to introduce uniformity in capstone project documents and ensure that students focus on the technical aspects of the project, not the document formatting. The use of templates forces all students to produce similarly structured and styled reports and avoids errors and omissions caused by forgetfulness. We provide the templates below in English. Hebrew versions are available upon request. Contact us for details.

CEMDA Project

Complex file events were first proposed by Etamar Laron (CEO, Asparna) in US Patent 9418070B2 as part of a novel system for file monitoring and revision control. Complex file events offer a way for devices to treat files more intelligently. They act as a bridge between the device level events that file systems and operating systems see and the high level user level actions that people perform on files. Complex file events are an Asparna core technology and serve as the foundation for many of its innovations. CEMDA is a system that brings file lifecycle analysis and complex file events to Android.

CemoMemo App

The CemoMemo project includes an associated mobile app that allows users to document gravestones and search the CemoMemo cemetery and gravestone database.

WSEmail Project

Web services offer an opportunity to redesign a variety of older systems to exploit the advantages of a flexible, extensible, secure set of standards. WSEmail explores the objective of improving Internet messaging (email) by redesigning it as a family of web services. This promises improvements in integration, security, and flexibility compared to the legacy messaging architecture based on SMTP. Since increased flexibility often mitigates against security and performance, it is necessary to develop strategies for proving security properties and efficiently implementing WSEmail as well as exploring opportunities for its applications.

publications

WSEmail: Secure Internet Messaging Based on Web Services

Published in International Conference on Web Services (ICWS 2005), 2005

A secure recreation of email using web services. The result is a more secure and private, but open messaging system.

Recommended citation: N. L. Bhattad, C. A. Gunter, M. J. May and K. D. Lux, WSEmail: Secure Internet Messaging Based on Web Services, in Proceedings 2005 IEEE International Conference on Web Service, Orlando, FL, 2005, pp. 75-82, doi: 10.1109/ICWS.2005.138.
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Privacy APIs: Access Control Techniques to Analyze and Verify Legal Privacy Policies

Published in 19th IEEE Computer Security Foundations Workshop (CSFW), 2006

An application of formal methods model checking to legal privacy policies.

Recommended citation: M. J. May, C. A. Gunter and I. Lee, Privacy APIs: access control techniques to analyze and verify legal privacy policies, in 19th IEEE Computer Security Foundations Workshop (CSFW 2006), Venice, Italy, 2006, pp. 13 pp.-97, doi: 10.1109/CSFW.2006.24.
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Securing the Drop-box Architecture for Assisted Living

Published in 4th ACM Workshop on Formal Methods in Security Engineering: From Specifications to Code, 2006

A novel architecture for securing and improving privacy for assisted living technologies.

Recommended citation: Michael J. May, Wook Shin, Carl A. Gunter, and Insup Lee. 2006. Securing the drop-box architecture for assisted living in Proceedings of the fourth ACM workshop on Formal methods in security (FMSE 06). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1145/1180337.1180338.
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Emergency Alerts as RSS Feeds with Interdomain Authorization

Published in Second International Conference on Internet Monitoring and Protection (ICIMP), 2007

Rethinking emergency alert technologies using RSS with interdomain authorization

Recommended citation: F. Gioachin, R. Shankesi, M. J. May, C. A. Gunter and W. Shin, Emergency Alerts as RSS Feeds with Interdomain Authorization, in Second International Conference on Internet Monitoring and Protection (ICIMP 2007), San Jose, CA, USA, 2007, pp. 13-13, doi: 10.1109/ICIMP.2007.15.
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Strong and Weak Policy Relations

Published in 2009 IEEE International Symposium on Policies for Distributed Systems and Networks, 2009

A more flexible way to compare privacy policies using a comparison metric derived from process calculi.

Recommended citation: M. J. May, C. A. Gunter, I. Lee and S. Zdancewic, Strong and Weak Policy Relations, in 2009 IEEE International Symposium on Policies for Distributed Systems and Networks, London, UK, 2009, pp. 33-36, doi: 10.1109/POLICY.2009.20.
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Towards Unified Authorization for Android

Published in 5th International Conference on Engineering Secure Software and Systems, 2013

A model for better authorization of applications in Android. Includes implementation and formal proof of correctness.

Recommended citation: Michael J. May and Karthikeyan Bhargavan. 2013. Towards unified authorization for android. In Proceedings of the 5th international conference on Engineering Secure Software and Systems (ESSoS 13). Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, 42–57. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36563-8_4
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On the Lifecycle of the File

Published in ACM Transactions on Storage (TOS), 2019

A foundational exploration of files and their lifecycle with application to intelligent file processing.

Recommended citation: Michael J. May, Etamar Laron, Khalid Zoabi, and Havah Gerhardt. On the Lifecycle of the File in ACM Trans. Storage 15, 1, Article 1 (February 2019), 45 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3295463.
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Combatting Ransomware Using Content Analysis and Complex File Events

Published in 2019 10th IFIP International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security (NTMS), 2019

A method to fight against ransomware encryption attacks using intelligent file processing.

Recommended citation: M. J. May and E. Laron, Combating Ransomware using Content Analysis and Complex File Events, in 2019 10th IFIP International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security (NTMS), Canary Islands, Spain, 2019, pp. 1-5, doi: 10.1109/NTMS.2019.8763851.
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Carved in Stone? Not Only: Towards Digitizing Cemeteries in the State of Israel and Interdisciplinary Cooperation in Colleges

Published in 35th Annual Conference of the Association for Israel Studies (AIS 2019), 2019

Presenting the ideas behind the CemoMemo cemetery digitization platform.

Recommended citation: Michael J. May and Efrat Kantor. Carved in Stone? Not Only: Towards Digitizing Cemeteries in the State of Israel and Interdisciplinary Cooperation in Colleges in 35th Annual Conference of the Association for Israel Studies (AIS 2019), Israel, 2019.
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WSEmail

Published in Service Oriented Computing and Applications , 2020

A revisiting of the WSEmail system after over a decade. Includes more about applications and new performance metrics.

Recommended citation: May, M.J., Lux, K.D. & Gunter, C.A. 2020. WSEmail in Service Oriented Computing and Applications (SOCA) 14, 5–17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11761-019-00283-9
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Systems and methods for generating and applying a patch package

Published in Israel Patent Office, 2021

A description of the system used to create effective, small patch files for compressed archives. This is a patent-level description of the algorithm used in Donag and a generalization for all patch files for compressed archives.

Recommended citation: Etamar Laron and Michael J. May. 2022. Systems and methods for generating and applying a patch package. (June 2022). Patent no. IL284315B, Filed June 22, 2021, Issued June 1, 2022
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CemoMemo: Making More Out of Gravestones (With Help From the Crowd)

Published in Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage, 2021

A exploration of a crowd-sourced cemetery and gravestone documentation system called CemoMemo. Includes software architecture descriptions and usage lessons.

Recommended citation: Michael J. May, Efrat Kantor, and Nissim Zror. 2021. CemoMemo: Making More Out of Gravestones (With Help From the Crowd). J. Comput. Cult. Herit. 14, 4, Article 57
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CEMDA: Detecting Android Complex File Events to Infer the User’s Mental Model

Published in 37th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium On Applied Computing (SAC 22), 2022

An extension of the theory of complex file events to the Android operating system.

Recommended citation: Michael J May, Yaakov Cohen, Hovav Menachem, and Yogev Swisa. CEMDA: detecting android complex file events to infer the users mental model. In Proceedings of the 37th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC 22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 2022. pp. 917–925. https://doi.org/10.1145/3477314.3507009
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Systems and methods for generating and applying a patch package

Published in WIPO (PCT), 2022

A description of the system used to create effective, small patch files for compressed archives. This is a patent-level description of the algorithm used in Donag and a generalization for all patch files for compressed archives. This is the WIPO version of the patent for global patent publication.

Recommended citation: Etamar Laron and Michael J. May. 2022. Systems and methods for generating and applying a patch package. (Dec 2022). WIPO PCT no. WO2022269612A1. Filed June 22, 2022, Issued Dec 29, 2022
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Improving a Model-Based Software Engineering Capstone Course

Published in IFIP WCCE 2022: World Conference on Computers in Education, 2022

A ten-year study of software engineering capstone projects and the processes that were taken to improve their outcomes.

Recommended citation: Michael J. May and Amir Tomer. Improving a Model-Based Software Engineering Capstone Course in Proceedings of IFIP WCCE 2022: World Conference on Computers in Education, 2022. pp. 195.
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Donag: Generating Efficient Patches and Diffs for Compressed Archives

Published in ACM Transactions on Storage, 2022

A novel algorithm for differencing compressed archives based on file lifecycle analysis. The algorithm produces diff files significantly smaller than existing differencing tools, enabling quick application of patches to compressed archives.

Recommended citation: Michael J. May. 2022. Donag: Generating Efficient Patches and Diffs for Compressed Archives in ACM Trans. Storage 18, 3, Article 26 (August 2022), 41 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3507919.
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CEMDA: Preserving the User’s Mental Model on Android Files Using Complex Events

Published in ACM SIGAPP Applied Computing Review, 2023

Applying the theory of file lifecycle analysis to apps in Android. This work extends the foundational work on file lifecycle analysis from 2019 with many new rules and a novel rule-base engine for Android phones.

Recommended citation: Michael J May, Yaakov Cohen, Hovav Menachem, and Yogev Swisa. 2023. CEMDA: Preserving the User's Mental Model on Android Files Using Complex Events in SIGAPP Appl. Comput. Rev. 22, 4 (December 2022), 24–36. https://doi.org/10.1145/3584014.3584016
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Memorialization and Attitudes Toward Suicide in Halutzi-Era Burials

Published in 39th Annual Conference of the Association for Israel Studies (AIS 2023), 2023

A study of how halutzi era communities remembered their dead through a data-driven analysis of gravestone epitaphs.

Recommended citation: Michael J. May and Efrat Kantor. Michael J. May and Efrat Kantor. 2023. Memorialization and Attitudes Toward Suicide in Halutzi-Era Burials in 39th Annual Conference of the Association for Israel Studies, New York, 2023.
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Improving a Model-Based Software Engineering Capstone Course

Published in Towards a Collaborative Society Through Creative Learning (WCCE 2022), 2023

An extended version of our study of sofware engineering capstone courses. The study covers 10 years of capstone projects at Kinneret, including a detailed description of the internal processes and documents used and a data-driven study of student reflections on their work.

Recommended citation: Michael J. May and Amir Tomer. 2023. Improving a Model-Based Software Engineering Capstone Course. In: Keane, T., Lewin, C., Brinda, T., Bottino, R. (eds) Towards a Collaborative Society Through Creative Learning. WCCE 2022. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 685. Springer, Cham.
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Attitudes toward death and suicide through the lens of Ḥalutzi-era gravestones

Published in Mortality, 2025

A broad statistical analysis of how Halutzi-era Jews memorialized their dead through gravestones. We place an emphasis on sentiment analysis of gravestone epitaphs and analyze how suicide influenced memorialization.

Recommended citation: May, M. J., & Kantor, E. (2025). Attitudes toward death and suicide through the lens of Ḥalutzi-era gravestones. Mortality, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2025.2533974
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sfp

talks

Improving Android File Sharing

Published:

An exploration of how Android file sharing includes many security vulnerabilities and a path forward for improving security and privacy using per-app authorization.

Computer Security: An Introduction

Published:

An invited talk about the foundations of computer security aimed at practitioners and software engineers who want to apply computer security fundamentals to their programming and systems.

Formal Methods Security Tools in the Service of Cyber Security

Published:

I presented an overview of how formal methods tools and languages can be used for evaluating the security of systems. I emphasized mature formal methods tools and showed examples of how each can be used for improving the security of systems and communication protocols.

Getting Authorization Right for Android Apps

Published:

I presented the Authzoid Android secure authorization system I developed with Karthikeyan Bhargavan. I showed how Android file sharing includes many security vulnerabilities. Authzoid shows a path forward for improving security and privacy in apps that share files.

Creating Continuity in Software Engineering Capstone Projects

Published:

I talked about Kinneret Software Engineering’s model for creating and maintaining quality in capstone projects. I brought examples from successful projects and shared the stage with a repeat capstone project from Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.

Privacy preserving parking

Published:

A talk about privacy preservation in municipal parking systems. I presented the scope of the problem and offered a privacy preserving architecture that will make it possible to park on the street using cellular based parking while preserving the level of privacy from classical parking technologies (e.g. parking meters).

CemoMemo

Published:

A walkthrough of the CemoMemo cemetery digitization system. I presented how the system works and the research capabilities that it offers.

teaching

teaching-archive