Automated Synthesis of Resilient Architectures
Lead PI:
Ehab Al-Shaer
Ehab Al-Shaer

Dr. Al-Shaer is a Distinguished Research Fellow at Software and Societal Systems Department in the School of Computer Science,  and Faculty Member of CyLab at Carnegie Mellon University. Prof. Al-Shaer was also a Distinguished Career Professor at School of College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Before joining CMU,  Dr. Al-Shaer was a Professor and the Founding Director of NSF Cybersecurity Analytics and Automation  (CCAA) center in the University of North Carolina Charlotte from 20011-2020.

Dr. Al-Shaer's primary research areas are AI-enabled cybersecurity including automated adaptive response, domain-specific language models for cybersecurity, formal methods for configuration verification and synthesis, active cyber deception, cyber deterrence and network resilience. He published 10 books and more than 250 refereed publications in his area of expertise. Dr. Al-Shaer was designated by the Department of Defense (DoD) as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) on security analytics and automation in 2011. He was also awarded the IBM Faculty Award in 2012, and the UNC Charlotte Faculty Research Award in 2013.

Dr. Al-Shaer was the ARO Autonomous Cyber Deception Workshop in 2018, General Chair of ACM Computer and Communication in 2009 and 2010, NSF Workshop in Assurable and Usable Security Configuration in 2008. Dr. Al-Shaer was also the Program Committee Chair for many conferences and workshops including ACM/IEEE SafeConfig 2013 and 2015, IEEE Integrated Management (IM) 2007, IEEE POLICY 2008. Al-Shaer has two accepted patents and several submitted ones. He also has lead several technology transfer projects. He is also an advisory board member for leading companies in cybersecurity automation. 

Static-Dynamic Analysis of Security Metrics for Cyber-Physical Systems
Lead PI:
Sayan Mitra
Co-Pi:
Geir Dullerud
Abstract

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are vulnerable to elusive dynamics-aware attacks that subtly change local behaviors in ways that lead to large deviations in global behavior, and to system instability. The broad agenda for this project is to classify attacks on different classes of CPS based on detectability. In particular, we are identifying attacks that are impossible to detect in a given class of CPS (with reasonable resources), and we are developing detection algorithms for those that are possible. The methods developed will primarily be aimed at scenarios in which attackers have some ability to intermittently disrupt either the timing or the quality-of-service of software or communication processes, even though the processes may not have been breached in the traditional sense. Much of the work will also apply to cases where such limited disruptions are introduced physically. Our approach is based on a set of powerful technical tools that draw from and combine ideas from robust control theory, formal methods, and information theory.

Sayan Mitra

Sayan Mitra is a Professor, Associate Head of Graduate Affairs, and John Bardeen Faculty Scholar of ECE at UIUC. His research is on safe autonomy. His research group develops theory, algorithms, and tools for control synthesis and verification. Some of these have been patented and are being commercialized. Several former PhD students are now professors: Taylor Johnson (Vanderbilt), Parasara Sridhar Duggirala (NC Chapel Hill), and Chuchu Fan (MIT). Sayan received his PhD from MIT with Nancy Lynch. His textbook on verification of cyber-physical systems was published by MIT press in 2021. The group's work has been recognized with NSF CAREER Award, AFOSR Young Investigator Research Program Award, ACM SRC gold prize, IEEE-HKN C. Holmes MacDonald Outstanding Teaching Award (2013), Siebel Fellowship, and several best paper awards.

Resilience and security in component-based software architectures for CPS
Lead PI:
Gabor Karsai
Abstract

Abstract:

Cyber-Physical Systems are converging towards a component-oriented and platform-based implementation. The community-driven Robotic Operating Systems and the proprietary Residential Operating System (of Prodea) are just two examples that indicate this trend. We envision that the software of the CPS is frequently updated and reconfigured, yet it cannot be guaranteed that security vulnerabilities are completely absent in the deployed systems. Clearly, there is a need to incorporate appropriate security features in these platforms so that they exhibit the necessary resilience properties and continue providing services even if parts of the larger system are compromised. In this project we develop a model-driven approach to system architecting for these component-based CPS that results in analysis techniques to determine the resilience of the systems, and in synthesis techniques that assist with the implementation. Prototypes and experimental studies will provide the vehicle for evaluation.

Hard Problems Addressed:

  • Develop means to design and analyze system architectures that deliver required service in the face of compromised components
  • Formal and informal domain-specific modeling languages to represent properties of CPS relevant for resilience
  • Scalable and composable analysis approaches to determine the resilience metrics for the system of CPS against security attacks
  • Requirements for trustworthy and dependable component-based software platforms that provide support for resilience
Gabor Karsai

Dr. Gabor Karsai is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Vanderbilt University, and Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Software-Integrated Systems. He has over thirty years of experience in software engineering. He conducts research in the design and implementation of embedded systems, in programming tools for visual programming environments, in the theory and practice of model-integrated computing, and in resource management and scheduling systems. He received his Diploma, MSc, and Dr. Techn. degrees from the Technical University of Budapest, Hungary, in 1982, 1984 and 1988, respectively, and his PhD from Vanderbilt University in 1988. He has published over 150 papers, and he is the co-author of four patents. He has managed several large research projects on model-based integration of embedded systems, model-based toolchains, fault-adaptive control technology,  and coordinated scheduling and planning.

Education

Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering
Vanderbilt University

Dr.Tech., Computer Engineering
Technical University of Budapest

M.S., Electrical Engineering
Technical University of Budapest

B.S., Electrical Engineering
Technical University of Budapest

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