Publications
Guest editorial: special issue on hardware solutions for cyber security
Summary
Summary
A cyber system could be viewed as an architecture consisting of application software, system software, and system hardware. The hardware layer, being at the foundation of the overall architecture, must be secure itself and also provide effective security features to the software layers. In order to seamlessly integrate security hardware...
A compact end cryptographic unit for tactical unmanned systems
Summary
Summary
Under the Navy's Flexible Cyber-Secure Radio (FlexCSR) program, the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory are jointly developing a unique cybersecurity solution for tactical unmanned systems (UxS): the FlexCSR Security/Cyber Module (SCM) End Cryptographic Unit (ECU). To deal with possible loss of unmanned...
Security considerations for next-generation operating systems for cyber-physical systems
Summary
Summary
Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) are increasingly targeted in high-profile cyber attacks. Examples of such attacks include Stuxnet, which targeted nuclear centrifuges; Crashoverride, and Triton, which targeted power grids; and the Mirai botnet, which targeted internet-of-things (IoT) devices such as cameras to carry out a large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. Such attacks...
HARDEN: A high assurance design environment
Summary
Summary
Systems resilient to cyber-attacks for mission assurance are difficult to develop, and the means of effectively evaluating them is even harder. We have developed a new architectural design and engineering environment, referred to as HARDEN (High AssuRance Design ENvironment), which supports an agile design methodology used to create secure and...
Leveraging Intel SGX technology to protect security-sensitive applications
Summary
Summary
This paper explains the process by which Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) can be leveraged into an existing codebase to protect a security-sensitive application. Intel SGX provides user-level applications with hardware-enforced confidentiality and integrity protections and incurs manageable impact on performance. These protections apply to all three phases of the...
Functionality and security co-design environment for embedded systems
Summary
Summary
For decades, embedded systems, ranging from intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) sensors to electronic warfare and electronic signal intelligence systems, have been an integral part of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) mission systems. These embedded systems are increasingly the targets of deliberate and sophisticated attacks. Developers thus need to focus...
Mission assurance: beyond secure processing
Summary
Summary
The processor of a drone runs essential functions of sensing, communications, coordination, and control. This is the conventional view. But in today's cyber environment, the processor must also provide security to assure mission completion. We have been developing a secure processing architecture for mission assurance. A study on state-of-the-art secure...
Next-generation embedded processors: an update
Summary
Summary
For mission assurance, Department of Defense (DoD) embedded systems should be designed to mitigate various aspects of cyber risks, while maintaining performance (size, weight, power, cost, and schedule). This paper reports our latest research effort in the development of a next-generation System-on-Chip (SoC) for DoD applications, which we first presented...
Towards a universal CDAR device: a high performance adapter-based inline media encryptor
Summary
Summary
As the rate at which digital data is generated continues to grow, so does the need to ensure that data can be stored securely. The use of an NSA-certified Inline Media Encryptor (IME) is often required to protect classified data, as its security properties can be fully analyzed and certified...
Building low-power trustworthy systems: cyber-security considerations for real-time physiological status monitoring
Summary
Summary
Real-time monitoring of physiological data can reduce the likelihood of injury in noncombat military personnel and first-responders. MIT Lincoln Laboratory is developing a tactical Real-Time Physiological Status Monitoring (RT-PSM) system architecture and reference implementation named OBAN (Open Body Area Network), the purpose of which is to provide an open, government-owned...