CRII: SaTC: Towards Secure Wide-area Localization

Northeastern University, Boston MA

Investigators

Abstract

Modern localization systems such as the Global Positioning System have widely demonstrated vulnerabilities to signal-spoofing and jamming attacks. With the advent of autonomous cyber-physical systems such as self-driving cars and unmanned aerial vehicles, the ability to securely estimate, track and verify one's location is increasingly critical, indicative of a strong need to realize localization systems that are resilient to modern day cyber-physical attacks. This project pursues this vision by evaluating and understanding the bottlenecks in realizing a secure wide-area localization system, and offering solutions to overcome them. This project will develop methods to enhance the security of existing localization systems with both near- and long-term deployment strategies. The project seeks to design several attack detection and mitigation techniques that can be implemented on currently deployed devices without requiring significant modifications to existing infrastructure. The project will also develop novel technologies that leverage and build robust recovery mechanisms using a combination of advanced signal processing, machine learning, and sensor fusion techniques. Holistic experimental evaluations of cyber-physical attacks against popular localization systems and their fail-safe technologies will likewise be conducted, alongside the evaluation of location spoofing attacks across geographic areas and networks due to the interdependencies and retroactions of today's networked systems. The project will explore the tension that exists between building a wide-area localization system that is both scalable and secure, thereby laying a foundation for future research in this area. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.