WPI professor receives $500K NSF grant for anti-hacker tech
Photo | Courtesy of Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Andrew Clark, assistant professor of electrical & computer engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Andrew Clark, assistant professor of electrical & computer engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, has received a $500,000 CAREER award from the National Science Foundation to develop a second line of cyber defense for systems that have been hacked, the school announced on Wednesday.
The technology is aimed at preventing technology like driverless cars, automation systems and security systems from reacting to faulty information and directions provided by hackers.
“It’s not enough to try to keep hackers out,” said Clark in a statement. “A smart system needs to keep working properly no matter what a hacker is telling it to do.”
Using algorithms, the cybersecurity research Clark is undertaking is expected to apply to a variety of systems, including the Internet of Things and robots.
According to WPI, he’s approaching the issue from two levels, including algorithms selecting paths and making decisions with the least predictable risk, and algorithms enabling sensors to override erroneous information coming from hacked sensors.
“If a hacker attacks an industrial robot working in a large manufacturing plant and tells that machine to delete product designs, takes machines offline, or introduces defects or trojans, that’s a severe risk,” Clark said. “This is about stopping any damage from being done, whether the system is a robot, an autonomous car, or a smart air-conditioning system.”
According to WPI, Clark has applied defense algorithms to allow robots to safely move through his lab while their sensor feeds have been hacked. A research student is reportedly working on protecting smart home systems, materials and manufacturing, as well as cyber, data and security systems.
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