… Justin Cappos, an assistant professor of computer systems and security at New York University [Tandon School of Engineering], suggested one quick fix for future security updates. Rather than telling users to update their systems for a “security patch,” Windows could offer a bleak warning: “Hackers can get into your computer right now, so please...
Author: Emerald Knox (Emerald Knox)
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WannaCry Malware Exploited OS Weakness to Spread
The recent ransomware cyberattack has claimed an estimated 300,000 computers in 150 countries. Cyber security expert Justin Cappos is a professor at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering. He described what the WannaCry malware is doing now and how it invades computers through a loophole in Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system. He said the malware exploits...
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BandiTS: Dynamic timing speculation using multi-armed bandit based optimization
Jeff Jun Zhang and Siddharth Garg Timing speculation has recently been proposed as a method for increasing performance beyond that achievable by conventional worst-case design techniques. Starting with the observation of fast temporal variations in timing error probabilities, we propose a run-time technique to dynamically determine the optimal degree of timing speculation (i.e., how aggressively the processor...
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Inspiring trust in outsourced integrated circuit fabrication
Siddharth Garg The fabrication of integrated circuits (ICs) is typically outsourced to an external semiconductor foundry to reduce cost. However, this can come at the expense of trust. How can a designer ensure the integrity of the ICs fabricated by an external foundry? The talk will discuss a new approach for inspiring trust in outsourced...
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A game-theoretic analysis of label flipping attacks on distributed support vector machines
Rui Zhang and Quanyan Zhu Distributed machine learning algorithms play a significant role in processing massive data sets over large networks. However, the increasing reliance on machine learning on information and communication technologies makes it inherently vulnerable to cyber threats. This work aims to develop secure distributed algorithms to protect the learning from adversaries. We...
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Minimax robust optimal control of multiscale linear-quadratic systems
Hamza Anwar and Quanyan Zhu With a growing system complexity in the IoT framework, many networked cyber-physical systems work in a hierarchical fashion. Layers of information outputs and command inputs are available. An active area of research is in optimizing the design of policies and control command that influence information flow for such multi-layered systems....
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Global Cyber Attack Cripples British Hospitals
A massive cyberattack galloped across international borders on 12 May 2017, crippling such vital organizations as Telefonica (a telecom company in Spain), Britain’s network of hospitals run by the National Health Service (NHS), and the Russian Interior Ministry. … The attack utilized a type of malware called ransomware. … Damon McCoy, an assistant professor of...
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What to Lock?: Functional and Parametric Locking
Muhammad Yasin, Abhrajit Sengupta, Benjamin Carrion Schafer, Yiorgos Makris, Ozgur Sinanoglu and Jeyavijayan (JV) Rajendran Logic locking is an intellectual property (IP) protection technique that prevents IP piracy, reverse engineering and overbuilding attacks by the untrusted foundry or end-users. Existing logic locking techniques are all based on locking the functionality; the design/chip is nonfunctional unless...
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The Need for Declarative Properties in Digital IC Security
Mohamed El Massad, Frank Imeson, Siddharth Garg and Mahesh Tripunitara. We emphasize the need to articulate precise, declarative properties in the context of securing Digital ICs. We do this by discussing two pieces of our work on securing Digital ICs. In one, we discuss a seemingly compelling approach to protecting Intellectual Property — IC camouflaging. We...
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Researchers Use Digitally Created Fingerprints to Unlock Smartphones
A team of researchers from the Tandon School of Engineering at the New York University has created a method of generating fake digital fingerprints capable of unlocking random smartphones. According to the research team, their method works with an accuracy of 26% to 65% of all tested phones, assuming a maximum number of five attempts...