research interest overview and future directions
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Research Interest overview and future directions. Mina Guirguis Computer Science Department Texas State University – San Marcos CS5300 9/16/2011. Research areas. Mobile Cyber-Physical Systems Security in networks and systems Digital Forensics Networks. Mobile Cyber-Physical System. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Research Interest overview and future directions
Mina Guirguis
Computer Science Department
Texas State University – San Marcos
CS5300
9/16/2011
Research areas
Mobile Cyber-Physical Systems Security in networks and systems Digital Forensics Networks
Mobile Cyber-Physical System
Cyber-Physical System (CPS) Combine computation and communication with our
physical world Intelligent buildings Robotics surgery Control systems
Mobile CPSs Subclass of CPSs where physical systems are mobile Cell phones, robots, cars, etc…
Motivating example
First feature video from the iRobot In military applications
Other motivating examples
Research vision and goal
Vision: environment in which mobile nodes collaborate to solve problems Robots communicate to achieve a specific task Cell phones share resources (CPU, network, power) Cars coordinate to realize an intelligent transportation
system
Goal: ensure that Mobile CPS applications are safe and secure
Challenges
Mobile CPSs will rely on wireless communication Attackers can interfere with/jam the signal between mobile
nodes, preventing them from communicating
Mobile CPSs are emerging as complex systems Complex systems are easier to attack and harder to debug
Mobile CPSs will make decisions under failures Control theory address noise due to random failure Attacks are not random failures, but well orchestrated
General research approach
Play the role: offense Identifying optimal and suboptimal attack policies What is the worst adversarial signal that would cripple
the system at this point in time? How can an attacker evade detection?
Play the role: defense Randomization: make the system less predictable Attacker would not be able to mount potent attacks
Mobile CPS Lab
4 iRobot Create, each with a netbook on top Camera, wireless, sensors
2 SRV-1 Blackfin robots Open source Camera, wireless, sensors
Servers and laptops for simulation and numerical analysis
Research areas
Mobile Cyber-Physical Systems Security in networks and systems Digital Forensics Networks
Network and systems security
Second feature video from a movie “Untraceable” the movie 2008
Research agenda
Goal: ensure secure and resilient networking and system components
Denial of Service (DoS) attacks Uninteresting -- easy to trace back to the heavy hitters
More interesting: Identify stealthy attacks Do not take a lot of resources to mount Undetectable Untraceable
Stealthy attacks
Idea: to exploit “adaptation mechanisms” found in networks and computing systems Adapting content based on load Adapting traffic rates based on congestion Balancing traffic across servers Reorganizing a P2P network
Analogy: Make other drivers brake when they should accelerate and accelerate when they should brake
Illustrative example…
DoS attacks (exploiting capacity)
Low-rate attacks (exploiting adaptation)
Exploiting adaptation
Adaptation mechanisms are designed under the assumption of non-adversarial loads Examples: random traffic patterns, random arrival
processes, etc.)
What types (patterns) of load would make adaptation harmful?
What are the tradeoffs between efficiency and tolerance to dynamic exploits?
Research areas
Mobile Cyber-Physical Systems Security in networks and systems Digital Forensics Networks
Digital forensics
Vision: Build effective tools to recover, examine and preserve digital evidence
Examples of digital evidence: Financial fraud documents Threatening/blackmail emails Contraband material Viruses, worms, trojans, backdoors, spyware, etc… Incriminating network connections Steganography channels for espionage
Digital forensics
Goal: Help investigators extract evidence from a computer or a digital device (iPad, iPhone, mp3 player) Done very carefully to be admissible in court Offline versus Online (live response) Speed up the process of finding evidence
Requires knowledge that spans different areas: Networks, systems, security, statistics, image processing,
criminal law, etc…
Research areas
Mobile Cyber-Physical Systems Security in networks and systems Digital Forensics Networks
Final remarks
My email address: [email protected]
Office hours: Mondays: 4:30 – 6:00 (in Round Rock) Tuesdays: 3:30 - 5:00 (in San Marcos) Thursdays: 10:00 – 12:00 (in San Marcos)