Drs. Peng Ning and Frank Mueller have received funding from the Army Research Office of $21,000 for their proposal titled “ARO Workshop on Security of Embedded Systems and Networks.” 

 

The award will run from September 15, 2006 through September 14, 2007.

 

Research Abstract - Embedded systems and networks are used heavily in critical defense applications. Malicious or accidental failures in embedded systems can have dire consequences. The integrity of embedded infrastructures, such as configuration and code, is of utmost importance. The autonomous nature of embedded systems also poses new challenges in the context of system integrity. Since embedded systems are reactive (interact with their environment), unexpected environment events or environment events generated by a malicious adversary can cause failures in embedded systems and networks. Embedded systems and networks often have to operate autonomously in a changing environment.

 

Therefore, infrastructure of an embedded system has to be updated to adapt its behavior to the change in environment or change in the overall mission. Unauthorized or unverified updates to the infrastructure of an embedded system can compromise its integrity. New techniques are needed that allow updates to the infrastructure of an embedded system without violating its integrity. In addition, techniques that prevent tampering with embedded infrastructures are also needed since field deployed embedded devices such as unmanned sensor nodes are prone to capture.

 

This workshop intends to bring researchers that have expertise in a variety of techniques for ensuring the security and integrity of mission-critical embedded systems and networks.