RESEARCH ON SECURITY AND PRIVACY IN CYBER-PHYSICAL SYSTEMS

Signals and Systems Group, Uppsala University,

Researchers: André Teixeira, Anders Ahlén, Subhrakanti Dey

Supported by Vetenskapsrådet and SSF

Project Descriptions:

ADSec - Analysis and Design of Secure and Resilient Control Systems

Reports on cyber-attacks, such as Stuxnet, have shown their devastating consequences on digitally controlled systems supporting modern societies. It is therefore of the utmost importance for control systems to be able to early detect and mitigate malicious cyber-attacks, which aim at having a significant impact on the system while remaining undetected. Unfortunately, existing techniques in control engineering consider impact and detectability separately, and thus fail to accurately tackle malicious cyber-attacks.

The aim of this project is to develop novel security metrics that jointly consider the impact and detectability of attacks, and that support the analysis and design of anomaly detectors and controllers for improved security and resilience.

LifeSec: Don't Hack my Body

Implanted devices must be effectively secured to avoid life-threatening scenarios where attackers control implanted devices such as pacemakers or insuline pumps, or install malware inside a human's body. This project devises a security architecture for networked implanted medical devices that also enables a secure connection of the in-body network to the Internet. Our architecture ensures confidentiality, integrity and availability of the implanted devices considering also patients’ privacy. In particular, the Signals and Systems group in the project will conduct original research in the area of signal- and information processing and control over wireless in-body area networks, in particular, (i) theoretical analysis of secure and resilient networked estimation and control subject to malicious attacks such as, e.g., data integrity, eavesdropping, and jamming attacks, (ii) algorithms for strategic system design, and (iii) integration of energy harvesting powered in-body networks, e.g, networks involving implanted devices.

Secure and Energy-Neutral Signal Processing and Control over Networks

This project will conduct original research in the area of signal- and information processing and control over wireless sensor networks, in particular, (i) theoretical analysis of secure and resilient networked estimation and control subject to malicious attacks such as denial of service, data integrity and eavesdropping attacks, (ii) game theoretic algorithms for strategic system design, and (iii) integration of energy harvesting based sensor networks in estimation and control of dynamical systems. Relevant areas also include distributed and decentralized estimation- and control algorithm design, e.g., with respect to wireless control applications.