Ph.D. Dissertation Proposal Defense Securing Modern Cyberspace Using A Multi-Faceted Approach By Yu Li

Ph.D. Committee:  Drs. Junjie Zhang (advisor), Michelle Cheatham, Bin Wang, and Phu H. Phung (University of Dayton)

ABSTRACT:

Security has become of the most significant concerns for our cyberspace.  Securing the cyberspace, however, becomes increasingly challenging.  This can be attributed to the rapidly growing diversities and complexity of the modern cyberspace.  Specifically, it is not any more dominated by connected personal computers (PCs); instead, it is greatly characterized by cyber-physical systems (CPS), embedded systems, dynamic services, and human-computer interactions [28]. Securing modern cyberspace therefore calls for a multi-faceted approach capable of systematically integrating these emerging characteristics. This dissertation presents our novel and significant solutions towards this direction.   Specifically, we have devised automated, systematic security solutions to three critical aspects of our modern cyberspace including i) cyber-physical systems, ii) dynamic web services, and iii) social networks.  This dissertation makes the following contributions.  First, we have conducted systematic vulnerability assessment for a real-world, complex CPS, namely Unmanned Systems Autonomy Services (UxAS). Our assessment has identified a set of exploitable vulnerabilities. Second, we have designed an adaptive traffic morphing algorithm to conceal CPS communications into background network traffic. Third, we have designed a CPS self-destruct model and studied the security-and-performance trade-off using probabilistic model checking.   Finally, we have designed a novel detection system to detect suspicious behaviors in an online emotional support system.