Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS)

Increasingly medical devices are dependent on software and the wireless channel for their operations, which also pose new vulnerabilities to their safe, dependable, and trustworthy operations. Medical devices such as implantable insulin pumps, which are in wide use today, continuously monitor and manage a patient's diabetes without the need for frequent daily patient interventions. These devices, not originally designed against cyber security threats, must now mitigate these threats.

Modern systems such as the electric smart grid consist of both cyber and physical components that must work together; these are called cyber-physical systems, or CPS. Securing such systems goes beyond just cyber security or physical security into cyber-physical security. While the threats multiply within a CPS, physical aspects also can reduce the threat space. Unlike purely cyber systems, such as the internet, CPS are grounded in physical reality.

Information sharing between operators (agents) in critical infrastructure systems such as the Smart Grid is fundamental to reliable and sustained operation. The contention, however, between sharing data for system stability and reliability (utility) and withholding data for competitive advantage (privacy) has stymied data sharing in such systems, sometimes with catastrophic consequences. This motivates a data sharing framework that addresses the competitive interests and information leakage concerns of agents and enables timely and controlled information exchange.

This project focuses on tackling the security and privacy of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) by integrating the theory and best practices from the information security community as well as practical approaches from the control theory community. The first part of the project focuses on security and protection of cyber-physical critical infrastructures such as the power grid, water distribution networks, and transportation networks against computer attacks in order to prevent disruptions that may cause loss of service, infrastructure damage or even loss of life.

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) operate nearly all of society's critical infrastructures (e.g., energy, transportation and medicine). In performing mission critical functions, CPSs exhibit hybrid (both discrete and continuous) behavior as they use digital technology to control and monitor physical processes. CPS security analysis is particularly challenging because an attacker can make use of a wide variety of vulnerabilities in the digital elements of the system (e.g., the network), the physical elements of the system, or some combination.