Information Flow Properties for Security in Cyber-Physical Systems

Dr. Bruce McMillin, Missouri University of Science and Technology

A Cyber-Physical System (CPS) is an engineered physical system with a significant cyber component  and consists  of many interacting  distributed  cyber  and physical  components. CPSs are deployed in critical applications such as such as advanced power electronics in a green  electric  power system,  vehicles  in an automated  highway system,  and consumer components  of a smart  house in which correct  operation  is  paramount. Unintended  or misunderstood interactions among the components of a CPS cause unpredictable behavior leading  to  serious  errors. While  each component  may independently  function  correctly, their  composition  may yield  incorrectness  due to  Interference. Interference  that  violates correctness  or security  is  well-understood  in the  purely  software  (cyber)  domain.  In the CPS domain, interference is much less understood. Security and confidentiality problems are particularly vexing. Formal security properties can be violated through physical interference with the cyber components.  This talk presents an interpretation of formal information flow properties and interference within the context of a cyber-physical system using examples such  as pizza delivery  at  the  Pentagon,  gas pipeline  flow, and green  distributed  energy systems management (Smart Grid).

Biography: Dr.  Bruce McMillin  is currently a Professor of Computer Science and a senior  research  investigator  in the  Intelligent  Systems  Center  at  the  Missouri  University of Science and Technology.  He leads and participates in interdisciplinary teams in formal methods for fault tolerance and security in distributed embedded systems with an eye to- wards critical infrastructure protection. His current work focuses on protection for advanced power grid control.  His research has been supported by the United States NSF, AFOSR, DOE, and several Missouri Industries.  His research interests include fault tolerance,  security,  parallel algorithms, software engineering, and distributed systems theory.  Dr.  McMillin  has authored over 80 refereed papers in international conferences and journals.  He served as program co- chair for the 2007 IEEE Computers, Software, and Applications Conference and serves as its 2011 general chair. He is leading the distributed grid intelligence project of the Future Renewables Engineering Research Center.