| NSF Org: |
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 13, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | September 13, 2016 |
| Award Number: | 1646305 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Ralph Wachter
rwachter@nsf.gov (703)292-8950 CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | January 1, 2017 |
| End Date: | December 31, 2020 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $352,088.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $352,088.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
506 S WRIGHT ST URBANA IL US 61801-3620 (217)333-2187 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
IL US 61820-7473 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | CPS-Cyber-Physical Systems |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001617RB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
This work examines how to get safety and security in Internet of Things (IoT) systems where multiple devices (things), each designed in isolation from others, are brought together to form a networked system, controlled via one or more software applications ("apps"). "Things" in an IoT environment can include simple devices such as switches, lightbulbs, smart locks, thermostats, and safety alarms as well as complex systems such as appliances, smartphones, and cars. Software IoT "apps" can monitor and control multiple devices in homes, cars, cities, and businesses, providing significant benefits such as energy efficiency, security, safety, and user convenience. Unfortunately, programmable IoT systems also introduce new risks, including enabling remote control by hackers of devices in smart homes, cars, and cities, via buggy IoT apps. Testing IoT apps to remove bugs is currently challenging due to a variety of physical devices with which such apps may interact, including devices that were not even available during app development. The proposed work will help develop techniques for testing IoT apps efficiently and for enforcing safety and security constraints on their run-time behavior.
More specifically, the proposed work is centered around three technical thrusts: 1) creating virtual device models to help efficiently test IoT apps systematically without knowing the precise details of physical devices that the apps will control in advance; 2) automating test development for an IoT app to check safety and security specifications against a flexible set of devices; and 3) providing support for enforcement of specifications at run-time for security and safety assertions. The work includes extensive experimentation and evaluation using diverse devices and will represent a significant advance in hardening this important spaces
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This project was a collaboration between the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The project developed novel techniques to improve security, safety, and testing of Internet of Things (IoT) and related systems. In IoT, multiple devices ("things"), often designed in isolation from others, are brought together to form a networked system, controlled via one or more software applications ("apps"). "Things" in an IoT environment can include simple devices such as "smart" switches, light bulbs, locks, thermostats, and safety alarms, as well as complex systems such as appliances and cars. Software IoT "apps" can monitor and control multiple devices in homes, cars, cities, and businesses. However, these programmable IoT systems also introduce new security and safety risks, including enabling remote control by hackers of devices.
The project resulted in research contributions on several topics, including these highlights: (1) identifying and addressing emerging security threats in computer vision systems such as autonomous vehicles in which, for example, tampered traffic signs with stickers or graffiti can result in misclassification of the traffic sign by machine learning models; (2) addressing emerging security and safety threats due to side-channel exploits in processor vulnerabilities, which are expected to become a significant issue even on IoT platforms that use much simpler processors and may not allow execution of arbitrary downloaded code; and (3) identifying weaknesses in reporting of security vulnerabilities in open-source ecosystems and recommending ways of addressing the weaknesses.
The project also resulted in broader impact. The popular GitHub platform now offers recommended mechanisms for reporting security vulnerabilities. The work on vulnerability of computer vision systems to physical perturbations, especially in the context of recognizing traffic signs, has resulted in open-sourced software and has been highly cited in popular press, including BBC, and a stop sign from the work has been exhibited at the London Science Museum to illustrate how machines can differ from humans in recognizing objects. The grant partially supported training of over a dozen graduate students and several undergraduate students who published over 20 research papers, mostly at top conferences. Several PhD students involved in this project became assistant professors, including at Cornell University, Stony Brook University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and University of Texas at Austin.
Last Modified: 01/21/2021
Modified by: Darko Marinov
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