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Iris biometric security challenges and possible solutions: for your eyes only? Using the iris as a key

August 13, 2015
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Journal Article
Author:
Gene Itkis
…
Published in:
IEEE Signal Process. Mag., Vol. 32, No. 5, September 2015, pp. 42-53.
Topic:
biometrics
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

Biometrics were originally developed for identification, such as for criminal investigations. More recently, biometrics have been also utilized for authentication. Most biometric authentication systems today match a user's biometric reading against a stored reference template generated during enrollment. If the reading and the template are sufficiently close, the authentication is considered successful and the user is authorized to access protected resources. This binary matching approach has major inherent vulnerabilities. An alternative approach to biometric authentication proposes to use fuzzy extractors (also known as biometric cryptosystems), which derive cryptographic keys from noisy sources, such as biometrics. In theory, this approach is much more robust and can enable cryptographic authorization. Unfortunately, for many biometrics that provide high-quality identification, fuzzy extractors provide no security guarantees. This gap arises in part because of an objective mismatch. The quality of a biometric identification is typically measured using false match rate (FMR) versus false nonmatch rate (FNMR). As a result, biometrics have been extensively optimized for this metric. However, this metric says little about the suitability of a biometric for key derivation. In this article, we illustrate a metric that can be used to optimize biometrics for authentication. Using iris biometrics as an example, we explore possible directions for improving processing and representation according to this metric. Finally, we discuss why strong biometric authentication remains a challenging problem and propose some possible future directions for addressing these challenges.
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Summary

Biometrics were originally developed for identification, such as for criminal investigations. More recently, biometrics have been also utilized for authentication. Most biometric authentication systems today match a user's biometric reading against a stored reference template generated during enrollment. If the reading and the template are sufficiently close, the authentication is...

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Iris biometric security challenges and possible solutions: for your eyes only? Using the iris as a key

Operational exercise integration recommendations for DoD cyber ranges

August 5, 2015
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Technical Report
Author:
Nicholas J. Hwang
…
Published in:
MIT Lincoln Laboratory Report TR-1187
Topic:
cyber security
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

Cyber-enabled and cyber-physical systems connect and engage virtually every mission-critical military capability today. And as more warfighting technologies become integrated and connected, both the risks and opportunities from a cyberwarfare continue to grow--motivating sweeping requirements and investments in cybersecurity assessment capabilities to evaluate technology vulnerabilities, operational impacts, and operator effectiveness. Operational testing of cyber capabilities, often in conjunction with major military exercises, provides valuable connections to and feedback from the operational warfighter community. These connections can help validate capability impact on the mission and, when necessary, provide course-correcting feedback to the technology development process and its stakeholders. However, these tests are often constrained in scope, duration, and resources and require a thorough and holistic approach, especially with respect to cyber technology assessments, where additional safety and security constraints are often levied. This report presents a summary of the state of the art in cyber assessment technologies and methodologies and prescribes an approach to the employment of cyber range operational exercises (OPEXs). Numerous recommendations on general cyber assessment methodologies and cyber range design are included, the most significant of which are summarized below. -Perform bottom-up and top-down assessment formulation methodologies to robustly link mission and assessment objectives to metrics, success criteria, and system observables. -Include threat-based assessment formulation methodologies that define risk and security metrics within the context of mission-relevant adversarial threats and mission-critical system assets. -Follow a set of cyber range design mantras to guide and grade the design of cyber range components. -Call for future work in live-to-virtual exercise integration and cross-domain modeling and simulation technologies. - Call for continued integration of developmental and operational cyber assessment events, development of reusable cyber assessment test tools and processes, and integration of a threat-based assessment approach across the cyber technology acquisition cycle. Finally, this recommendations report was driven by observations made by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL) Cyber Measurement Campaign (CMC) team during an operational demonstration event for the DoD Enterprise Cyber Range Environment (DECRE) Command and Control Information Systems (C2IS). This report also incorporates a prior CMC report based on Pacific Command (PACOM) exercise observations, as well as MIT LL's expertise in cyber range development and cyber systems assessment.
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Summary

Cyber-enabled and cyber-physical systems connect and engage virtually every mission-critical military capability today. And as more warfighting technologies become integrated and connected, both the risks and opportunities from a cyberwarfare continue to grow--motivating sweeping requirements and investments in cybersecurity assessment capabilities to evaluate technology vulnerabilities, operational impacts, and operator effectiveness...

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Operational exercise integration recommendations for DoD cyber ranges

Comparison of gate dielectric plasma damage from plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposited and magnetron sputtered TiN metal gates

July 29, 2015
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Journal Article
Author:
Steven A. Vitale
…
Published in:
J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 118, No. 4, 2015, 045307.
Topic:
advanced materials
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

Fully depleted silicon-on-insulator transistors were fabricated using two different metal gate deposition mechanisms to compare plasma damage effects on gate oxide quality. Devices fabricated with both plasma-enhanced atomic-layer-deposited (PE-ALD) TiN gates and magnetron plasma sputtered TiN gates showed very good electrostatics and short-channel characteristics. However, the gate oxide quality was markedly better for PE-ALD TiN. A significant reduction in interface state density was inferred from capacitance-voltage measurements as well as a 1200 x reduction in gate leakage current. A high-power magnetron plasma source produces a much higher energetic ion and vacuum ultra-violet (VUV) photon flux to the wafer compared to a low-power inductively coupled PE-ALD source. The ion and VUV photons produce defect states in the bulk of the gate oxide as well as at the oxide-silicon interface, causing higher leakage and potential reliability degradation.
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Summary

Fully depleted silicon-on-insulator transistors were fabricated using two different metal gate deposition mechanisms to compare plasma damage effects on gate oxide quality. Devices fabricated with both plasma-enhanced atomic-layer-deposited (PE-ALD) TiN gates and magnetron plasma sputtered TiN gates showed very good electrostatics and short-channel characteristics. However, the gate oxide quality was...

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Comparison of gate dielectric plasma damage from plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposited and magnetron sputtered TiN metal gates

Versatile alignment layer method for new types of liquid crystal photonic devices

July 21, 2015
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Journal Article
Author:
Valerie A. Finnemeyer
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Published in:
J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 118, No. 3, July 2015, pp. 034501.
Topic:
photonics
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

Liquid crystal photonic devices are becoming increasingly popular. These devices often present a challenge when it comes to creating a robust alignment layer in pre-assembled cells. In this paper, we describe a method of infusing a dye into a microcavity to produce an effective photo-definable alignment layer. However, previous research on such alignment layers has shown that they have limited stability, particularly against subsequent light exposure. As such, we further describe a method of utilizing a pre-polymer, infused into the microcavity along with the liquid crystal, to provide photostability. We demonstrate that the polymer layer, formed under ultraviolet irradiation of liquid crystal cells, has been effectively localized to a thin region near the substrate surface and provides a significant improvement in the photostability of the liquid crystal alignment. This versatile alignment layer method, capable of being utilized in devices from the described microcavities to displays, offers significant promise for new photonics applications.
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Summary

Liquid crystal photonic devices are becoming increasingly popular. These devices often present a challenge when it comes to creating a robust alignment layer in pre-assembled cells. In this paper, we describe a method of infusing a dye into a microcavity to produce an effective photo-definable alignment layer. However, previous research...

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Versatile alignment layer method for new types of liquid crystal photonic devices

Simulation based evaluation of a code diversification strategy

July 21, 2015
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Conference Paper
Author:
Michael A. Zhivich
…
Published in:
5th Int. Conf. on Simulation and Modeling Methodologies, Technologies, and Applications, SIMULTECH 2015, 21-23 July 2015.
Topic:
machine learning
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

Periodic randomization of a computer program's binary code is an attractive technique for defending against several classes of advanced threats. In this paper we describe a model of attacker-defender interaction in which the defender employs such a technique against an attacker who is actively constructing an exploit using Return Oriented Programming (ROP). In order to successfully build a working exploit, the attacker must guess the locations of several small chunks of program code (i.e., gadgets) in the defended program's memory space. As the attacker continually guesses, the defender periodically rotates to a newly randomized variant of the program, effectively negating any gains the attacker made since the last rotation. Although randomization makes the attacker's task more difficult, it also incurs a cost to the defender. As such, the defender's goal is to find an acceptable balance between utility degradation (cost) and security (benefit). One way to measure these two competing factors is the total task latency introduced by both the attacker and any defensive measures taken to thwart him. We simulated a number of diversity strategies under various threat scenarios and present the measured impact on the defender's task.
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Summary

Periodic randomization of a computer program's binary code is an attractive technique for defending against several classes of advanced threats. In this paper we describe a model of attacker-defender interaction in which the defender employs such a technique against an attacker who is actively constructing an exploit using Return Oriented...

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Simulation based evaluation of a code diversification strategy

Vehicle-mounted STAR antenna isolation performance

July 19, 2015
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Conference Paper
Author:
Kenneth E. Kolodziej
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Published in:
IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Int. Symp. 2015, 19-25 July 2015.
Topic:
antennas
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

Vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems promise enhanced safety for passengers, but require access to a crowded wireless spectrum to enable their data links. Simultaneous Transmit and Receive (STAR) systems can facilitate this spectrum access by increasing the number of users within a given frequency band. Since high isolation is needed for STAR system operation, the effect of mounting a STAR antenna on a vehicle is investigated in this paper. The omni-directional antennas isolation performance was measured to be 53 dB at 2.45 GHz across a 60 MHz bandwidth, which confirms that the vehicle does not significantly degrade isolation performance.
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Summary

Vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems promise enhanced safety for passengers, but require access to a crowded wireless spectrum to enable their data links. Simultaneous Transmit and Receive (STAR) systems can facilitate this spectrum access by increasing the number of users within a given frequency band. Since high isolation is needed for STAR...

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Vehicle-mounted STAR antenna isolation performance

A modification of the two-antenna method to determine the phase center location as well as the gain of a wideband antenna

July 19, 2015
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Conference Paper
Author:
Herbert M. Aumann
…
Published in:
2015 IEEE Int. Symp. on Antennas and Propagation, 19-24 July 2015.
Topic:
antennas
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

A technique is presented for determining the amplitude center or phase center location of a wideband Vivaldi antenna at measurement distances of a few wavelengths. It is based on the well known two-antenna gain measurement technique but makes the antenna separation a variable. The phase center separation is shown to be proportional to the derivative of a transmission matrix loss parameter which is constant and independent of the antenna separation. A linear least squares fit to transmission loss parameters measured at several antenna separations is shown to yield the antenna gain and phase center location.
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Summary

A technique is presented for determining the amplitude center or phase center location of a wideband Vivaldi antenna at measurement distances of a few wavelengths. It is based on the well known two-antenna gain measurement technique but makes the antenna separation a variable. The phase center separation is shown to...

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A modification of the two-antenna method to determine the phase center location as well as the gain of a wideband antenna

Guaranteeing spoof-resilient multi-robot networks

July 13, 2015
  |
Conference Paper
Author:
Stephanie Gil
…
Published in:
2015 Robotics: Science and Systems Conf., 13-17 July 2015.
Topic:
cyber security
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

Multi-robot networks use wireless communication to provide wide-ranging services such as aerial surveillance and unmanned delivery. However, effective coordination between multiple robots requires trust, making them particularly vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Specifically, such networks can be gravely disrupted by the Sybil attack, where even a single malicious robot can spoof a large number of fake clients. This paper proposes a new solution to defend against the Sybil attack, without requiring expensive cryptographic key-distribution. Our core contribution is a novel algorithm implemented on commercial Wi-Fi radios that can "sense" spoofers using the physics of wireless signals. We derive theoretical guarantees on how this algorithm bounds the impact of the Sybil Attack on a broad class of robotic coverage problems. We experimentally validate our claims using a team of AscTec quadrotor servers and iRobot Create ground clients, and demonstrate spoofer detection rates over 96%.
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Summary

Multi-robot networks use wireless communication to provide wide-ranging services such as aerial surveillance and unmanned delivery. However, effective coordination between multiple robots requires trust, making them particularly vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Specifically, such networks can be gravely disrupted by the Sybil attack, where even a single malicious robot can spoof a...

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Guaranteeing spoof-resilient multi-robot networks

Temporal and multi-source fusion for detection of innovation in collaboration networks

July 6, 2015
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Conference Paper
Author:
Benjamin A. Miller
…
Published in:
Proc. of the 18th Int. Conf. On Information Fusion, 6-9 July 2015.
Topic:
big data
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

A common problem in network analysis is detecting small subgraphs of interest within a large background graph. This includes multi-source fusion scenarios where data from several modalities must be integrated to form the network. This paper presents an application of novel techniques leveraging the signal processing for graphs algorithmic framework, to well-studied collaboration networks in the field of evolutionary biology. Our multi-disciplinary approach allows us to leverage case studies of transformative periods in this scientific field as truth. We build on previous work by optimizing the temporal integration filters with respect to truth data using a tensor decomposition method that maximizes the spectral norm of the integrated subgraph's adjacency matrix. We also demonstrate that we can mitigate data corruption via fusion of different data sources, demonstrating the power of this analysis framework for incomplete and corrupted data.
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Summary

A common problem in network analysis is detecting small subgraphs of interest within a large background graph. This includes multi-source fusion scenarios where data from several modalities must be integrated to form the network. This paper presents an application of novel techniques leveraging the signal processing for graphs algorithmic framework...

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Temporal and multi-source fusion for detection of innovation in collaboration networks

Thermal and residual excited-state population in a 3D transmon qubit

June 19, 2015
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Journal Article
Author:
X. Y. Jin
…
Published in:
Phys. Rev. Lett., Vol. 114, No. 24, 19 June 2015, 240501.
Topic:
computing
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

Remarkable advancements in coherence and control fidelity have been achieved in recent years with cryogenic solid-state qubits. Nonetheless, thermalizing such devices to their milliKelvin environments has remained a long-standing fundamental and technical challenge. In this context, we present a systematic study of the first-excited-state population in a 3D transmon superconducting qubit mounted in a dilution refrigerator with a variable temperature. Using a modified version of the protocol developed by Geerlings et al., we observe the excited-state population to be consistent with a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, i.e., a qubit in thermal equilibrium with the refrigerator, over the temperature range 35-150 mK. Below 35 mK, the excited-state population saturates at approximately 0.1%. We verified this result using a flux qubit with ten times stronger coupling to its readout resonator. We conclude that these qubits have effective temperature Teff ơ 35 mK. Assuming Teff is due solely to hot quasiparticles, the inferred qubit lifetime is 108 microns and in plausible agreement with the measured 80 microns.
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Summary

Remarkable advancements in coherence and control fidelity have been achieved in recent years with cryogenic solid-state qubits. Nonetheless, thermalizing such devices to their milliKelvin environments has remained a long-standing fundamental and technical challenge. In this context, we present a systematic study of the first-excited-state population in a 3D transmon superconducting...

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Thermal and residual excited-state population in a 3D transmon qubit
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