CAREER: SaTC: Secure and Private Wide-area Positioning

Northeastern University, Boston MA

Investigators

Abstract

With the widespread deployment of wireless devices ranging from mobile phones to unmanned vehicles and the explosive growth of the Internet-of-Things, location information is becoming key to a variety of safety- and security-critical such as navigation services, emergency support, asset management, and modern communication networks. Existing wireless positioning systems provide limited security guarantees and are vulnerable to signal spoofing, jamming, and re(p)lay attacks with severe implications: an adversary can enter a restricted area, make fraudulent payments, deviate vehicles from their intended paths, and halt operations in transportation hubs. There is an urgent need to design and develop wide-area positioning and navigation systems that are resilient to modern-day cyber-physical attacks. The project is designing and developing wide-area positioning technologies creating an ecosystem that delivers secure, privacy-preserving, trustworthy location information to thousands of devices and services simultaneously. The project seeks to understand the tension that exists in satisfying the key performance metrics of accuracy, scalability, and wide coverage area while achieving strong security and privacy guarantees. The project is developing new tractable threats to secure and private positioning, given the widespread availability of low-cost software-defined radio platforms. The results of the threat analysis help understand the fundamental limitations of existing positioning systems and characterize the effect of strong adversaries. The project primarily targets designing positioning primitives for next-generation wireless networks (5G and beyond). The positioning systems being designed in this project makes trustworthy and secure location information widely available; thus, creating opportunities for new applications and services. The project intertwines an education plan with its research aspects and is specifically opening the gateway to Computer Science education for all students. The results of the project directly influence next-generation wireless standards and significantly impact their implementation and deployment. 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.