Hovakimyan works to improve cyber-physical security

11/13/2017 Veronica Holloway, MechSE Communications

Written by Veronica Holloway, MechSE Communications

MechSE’s W. Grafton and Lillian B. Wilkins Professor Naira Hovakimyan received a three-year National Science Foundation grant to develop unified cyber-physical security systems. Her co-PIs are Professor Petros Voulgaris from the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Professor Lui Sha from the Department of Computer Science. The project is funded in collaboration with Assistant Professor Xiaofeng Wang from the University of South Carolina.

Coordinated cyber-physical attacks (CCPA) are a newer concern within the realm of security. CCPAs are attacks involving both cyber and physical elements, and have the potential to cause tangible destruction and endanger human lives.

As of now, cyber and physical security have been addressed separately, assuming no dependency on each other. This new research focuses on utilizing a cohesive set of assumptions to form a unified model that covers both cyber and physical security to more effectively defend against CCPAs. With this model, the research team aims to provide safe and reliable solutions to cyber-physical security (CPS) that don’t sacrifice functionality or accessibility, and to establish theoretical foundation and engineering principles for creating resilient CPS architectures.

This project will focus on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), evaluating the technology on three different test beds: UAVs, generic transportation models (GTM) for an aircraft, and power system virtual testbeds (VTB). Concurrently, the CPS technology will be updated to include new attack detection models, isolation of those, and recovery tools along with new timing and control techniques.

Hovakimyan is a leader at the forefront of the field of robust adaptive control systems. She joined the MechSE Department in 2008, and is an affiliate faculty in the departments of Aerospace Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as a professor in the Coordinated Science Lab, Beckman Institute of Science and Technology, and the Information Trust Institute. She earned her PhD in physics and mathematics from the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1992.


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This story was published November 13, 2017.