Anshul Pandey

Brahim Mefgouda, Raviha Khan, Omar Alhussein et al.

By 2025, the internet of things (IoT) is projected to connect over 75 billion devices globally, fundamentally altering how we interact with our environments in both urban and rural settings. However, IoT device security remains challenging, particularly in the authentication process. Traditional cryptographic methods often struggle with the constraints of IoT devices, such as limited computational power and storage. This paper considers physical unclonable functions (PUFs) as robust security solutions, utilizing their inherent physical uniqueness to authenticate devices securely. However, traditional PUF systems are vulnerable to machine learning (ML) attacks and burdened by large datasets. Our proposed solution introduces a lightweight PUF mechanism, called LPUF-AuthNet, combining tandem neural networks (TNN) with a split learning (SL) paradigm. The proposed approach provides scalability, supports mutual authentication, and enhances security by resisting various types of attacks, paving the way for secure integration into future 6G technologies.

Martin Andreoni Lopez, Michael Baddeley, Willian T. Lunardi et al.

UAVs are increasingly appearing in swarms or formations to leverage cooperative behavior, forming flying ad hoc networks. These UAV-enabled networks can meet several complex mission requirements and are seen as a potential enabler for many of the emerging use-cases in future communication networks. Such networks, however, are characterized by a highly dynamic and mobile environment with no guarantee of a central network infrastructure which can cause both connectivity and security issues. While wireless mesh networks are envisioned as a solution for such scenarios, these networks come with their own challenges and security vulnerabilities. In this paper, we analyze the key security and resilience issues resulting from the application of wireless mesh networks within UAV swarms. Specifically, we highlight the main challenges of applying current mesh technologies within the domain of UAV swarms and expose existing vulnerabilities across the communication stack. Based on this analysis, we present a security-focused architecture for UAV mesh communications. Finally, from the identification of these vulnerabilities, we discuss research opportunities posed by the unique challenges of UAV swarm connectivity.