Title:  Stratified Inference of Information in Cyber-Physical Systems based on Physics

Committee: 

Dr. Beyah, Advisor        

Dr. Saltaformaggio, Chair

Dr. Feron

Abstract:

The objective of the proposed research is to study different techniques to infer the critical information of a Cyber-Physical System (CPS) at different levels. The field of CPSs is growing rapidly. In recent years, a variety of CPS applications in different domains have flourished. Meanwhile, there have also been more frequent attacks on CPSs. The problem becomes more aggravated as the number of attacks against critical infrastructures increases rapidly. Thus, it is important to develop novel solutions to secure these critical CPSs. One way of verifying the authenticity and integrity of an operating CPS is to check the fingerprints generated by the static structure and the dynamic operation of the CPS in the "cyber" domain, e.g., network traffic and control programs, or in a side channel, e.g., vibration and sound. A CPS can be physically characterized at three layers, namely, device model and configuration, process model, and process parameters. This research aims to find the correlation between the physics attributes of each layer and its fingerprints in other domains, and to infer critical information of the CPSs from such correlation. The outcome from this research can be interpreted as both attacking and defending techniques. On the one hand, attackers may leverage the device/process/parameter techniques to obtain sensitive information from critical infrastructures. On the other hand, for defenders, such inference techniques can also be used to verify the correct operation of the CPS by checking the fingerprints. These techniques can be used as a basis to develop novel solutions to secure the CPSs.