CAREER: Protecting Critical Infrastructure Against Wireless Attacks

Wireless communication has transformed the safe and efficient operation of modern critical infrastructure. Across the nation today, it is common to find many dozens of pervasive yet undocumented wireless devices controlling everything from circuit breakers on the power grid to aviation fuel trucks, city water valves, and even configurable speed signs.

Operators wirelessly connect to infrastructure to remotely monitor and control it, a task that previously was hazardous and time consuming because it required physically accessing the infrastructure. Unfortunately, wireless access has created a new vector for attackers to gain access to critical infrastructure while evading all existing cyber and physical defenses.

This project introduces new methodologies, tools, and education programs, seeding the growth of a new class of wireless cyber-defenses that can protect widely distributed wireless infrastructure. The project’s education efforts will accelerate the growth of wireless infrastructure security through outreach efforts to critical infrastructure operators, and hands-on computer security research training for underrepresented students.

The goal of this project is to develop generalized wireless security principles for distributed and diverse deployments of wireless devices. (1) The project will result in a universal mobile wireless scanning methodology that can rapidly find devices across all frequencies and protocols and identify wireless devices used in critical infrastructure across large areas in a short time. (2) In addition, project activities include large-scale measurements and the development of new wireless fingerprinting methodologies to produce the first taxonomy of vulnerabilities in wirelessly controlled critical infrastructure. (3) The research plan also includes development of defenses for the two primary weaknesses in distributed wireless deployments: discovery and authentication.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.