Smitha Gautham

Smitha Gautham, Abhilash Rajagopala, Athira Varma Jayakumar et al.

Advanced embedded system technology is one of the key driving forces behind the rapid growth of Cyber-Physical System (CPS) applications. Cyber-Physical Systems are comprised of multiple coordinating and cooperating components, which are often software intensive and interacting with each other to achieve unprecedented tasks. Such complex CPSs have multiple attack surfaces and attack vectors that we have to secure against. Towards this goal, we demonstrate a multilevel runtime safety and security monitor framework where there are monitors across the CPS for detection and isolation of attacks. We implement the runtime monitors on FPGA using a stream-based runtime verification tool called TeSSLa. We demonstrate our monitoring scheme for an Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) CPS system.

Smitha Gautham, Georgios Bakirtzis, Matthew T. Leccadito et al.

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are composed of various embedded subsystems and require specialized software, firmware, and hardware to coordinate with the rest of the system. These multiple levels of integration expose attack surfaces which can be susceptible to attack vectors that require novel architectural methods to effectively secure against. We present a multilevel hierarchical monitor architecture cybersecurity approach applied to a flight control system. However, the principles present in this paper apply to any CPS. Additionally, the real-time nature of these monitors allow for adaptable security, meaning that they mitigate against possible classes of attacks online. This results in an appealing bolt-on solution that is independent of different system designs. Consequently, employing such monitors leads to strengthened system resiliency and dependability of safety-critical CPS.