Design of High-Assurance Cyber-Physical Systems

Abstract

The project aims to establish a high-assurance development framework for cyber-physical systems (CPS) that have to safely operate ev"en in adversarial environments. Specifically, we define high-assurance to mean functionally correct and satisfying appropriate safet""y and security properties even in the presence of attacks. Number of recent high-profile attacks on military systems, such as RQ-170"" Sentinel drone capturing, as well as attacks on critical infrastructure andindustrial systems (e.g., Stuxnet, 2016 Ukraine power-g"rid breach) have clearly illustrated vulnerabilities of cyber physical systems and raised attention to the unique set of security ch"allenges. These challenges arise from the tight integration of information technology and physical components, making CPS vulnerable" to attack vectors well beyond the standard cyber attacks and causing conventional information security approaches to be ineffective in dealing with such attacks.Our goal is to ensure safe operation of modern naval systems and graceful performance degradation in contested environments. This will be accomplished by developing a set of design techniques and tools that: 1) incorporate security" awareness into the design of cyber-physical components by exploiting the physical laws governing systems behavior, and 2) synthesiz"e software tasks that correctly implement the developed cyber-physical components without introducing any security vulnerabilities." Development of the high-assurance design framework will be supplemented by a series of naval case studies, focused on design of mod"ern vessels and unmanned aerial vehicles. These casestudies with increasing scale and complexity will yield a comprehensive evaluation of the developed techniques and tools.The project aims to establish a high-assurance development framework for cyber-physical" systems (CPS) that have to safely operate even in adversarial environments. Specifically, we define high-assurance to mean function"ally correct and satisfying appropriate safety and security properties even in the presence of attacks. Number of recent high-profil"e attacks on military systems, such as RQ-170 Sentinel drone capturing, as well as attacks on critical infrastructure andindustrial"" systems (e.g., Stuxnet, 2016 Ukraine power-grid breach) have clearly illustrated vulnerabilities of cyber physical systems and rais"ed attention to the unique set of security challenges. These challenges arise from the tight integration of information technology a"nd physical components, making CPS vulnerable to attack vectors well beyond the standard cyber attacks and causing conventional info"rmation security approaches to be ineffective in dealing with such attacks.

Document Details

Document Type
DoD Grant Award
Publication Date
May 05, 2017
Source ID
N000141712504

Entities

People

  • Miroslav Pajic

Organizations

  • Duke University
  • Office of Naval Research
  • United States Navy

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Cybersecurity.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - Autonomous System Control
  • Cyber