Project Details
Projekt
Collective Resilient Unattended Smart Things (CRUST)
Subject Area
Security and Dependability, Operating-, Communication- and Distributed Systems
Term
since 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 503199853
The Internet of Things (IoT) is closing the gap between the physical and digital world. It is expected to grow to tens or even hundreds of billion devices over the next decade. Ultimately it drives the vision of a ‘smart world’. Since IoT devices are networked by design, IoT deployments feature a huge attack surface, thus posing a novel risk at an unprecedented scale. This is particularly true for open and unattended IoT systems operating in physically insecure areas. Such open and unattended IoT systems can drive a number of novel applications. For instance, dense urban IoT deployments enable future digital cities, while autonomous and off-the-grid IoT deployments in the wild facilitate novel environmental or smart farming applications. However, the resilient and secure operation of unattended IoT systems is not well understood. In the proposed project Collective Resilient Unattended Smart Things (CRUST), we devise fundamental solutions to operate unattended IoT systems in a resilient and secure manner. We structure our work in three work packages (WPs). In WP1, we focus on the detection and classification of adverse events such as destroyed or manipulated sensors utilizing only the devices’ physical context. Various events are covered, irrespective of the cause of the event (intentional attack, severe weather conditions, continuous degradation, etc.). In WP2, we design a secure ultra-low latency control channel for IoT systems, which allows forming secure, collective IoT systems. We further devise enhanced autonomous security schemes for operation in unattended IoT systems by utilizing a security facilitator. Finally, in WP3 we harness the networked and collective nature of IoT systems and design collective recognition of adverse events and collective self-protection through reconfiguration and self-defense. Moreover, we validate the concepts based on collective intelligence in (existing) real-world testbeds in two representative scenarios: (i) an off-the-grid smart fence for repelling predators such as wolves from livestock and (ii) a smart streetlight deployment for smart city applications.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
