NSF Workshop on Wireless Security

Arizona State University, Scottsdale AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Wireless technologies have fueled IT and economic growth around the globe. The past decade has witnessed an explosive deployment of wireless technologies, coupled with a rapid development of highly capable mobile devices and life-changing applications. Advances in wireless technologies have led to a pervasive communication fabric that encompasses everything such as vehicles, smartphones, smart meters, environmental sensors, portable medical devices, and personal communication devices. There is no doubt that the wireless cyberspace has had a transformative impact on the society and has revolutionized almost all aspects of daily life, work, and leisure. The ever-growing wireless cyberspace is unfortunately accompanied by a commensurate increase in security threats, both originating from and directed at the wireless cyberspace. It is thus not surprising that cyber security has become a focus for research and development across academic, government, and industry sectors in recent years. On the one hand, wireless networks and systems often have characteristics and security requirements that are quite varied. On the other hand, there are new opportunities to explore for securing the wireless cyberspace. This NSF Workshop on Wireless Security is to help the research community better understand the critical need for security in future wireless networked systems and identify promising research directions to secure the wireless cyberspace. This workshop brings together researchers and practitioners in multiple fields-such as wireless networking, information theory, mobile systems, and security-and provides a forum for an in-depth scientific discussion and debate on the critical security challenges facing the future wireless cyberspace. This workshop is intended to cover a wide scope of emerging security and privacy issues in wireless networks, mobile systems, and wireless/mobile applications. The expected outcome of this workshop is a report that clearly identifies major research challenges in wireless security, exposes the research community to new and exciting inter-disciplinary research problems, and articulates a vision of conducting fundamental and inter-disciplinary research in this area. The workshop engages various stakeholders in the community to explore strategies for enhancing educational opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. The workshop also engages personnel from across the entire US including women and minority faculty and researchers. The final workshop report will be available online for sharing with the research community.