{"id":128714,"date":"2021-10-08T21:23:10","date_gmt":"2021-10-09T04:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/researchers-create-self-aware-algorithm-to-ward-off-hacking-attempts"},"modified":"2021-10-08T21:23:10","modified_gmt":"2021-10-09T04:23:10","slug":"researchers-create-self-aware-algorithm-to-ward-off-hacking-attempts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/researchers-create-self-aware-algorithm-to-ward-off-hacking-attempts","title":{"rendered":"Researchers create \u2018self-aware\u2019 algorithm to ward off hacking attempts"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

It sounds like a scene from a spy thriller. An attacker gets through the IT defenses of a nuclear power plant and feeds it fake, realistic data, tricking its computer systems and personnel into thinking operations are normal. The attacker then disrupts the function of key plant machinery, causing it to misperform or break down. By the time system operators realize they\u2019ve been duped, it\u2019s too late, with catastrophic results.<\/p>\n

The scenario isn\u2019t fictional; it happened in 2,010 when the Stuxnet virus<\/a> was used to damage nuclear centrifuges in Iran. And as ransomware and other cyberattacks around the world increase, system operators worry more about these sophisticated \u201cfalse data injection\u201d strikes. In the wrong hands, the computer models and data analytics\u2014based on artificial intelligence\u2014that ensure smooth operation of today\u2019s electric grids, manufacturing facilities, and power plants could be turned against themselves.<\/p>\n

Purdue University\u2019s Hany Abdel-Khalik has come up with a powerful response<\/a>: To make the computer models that run these cyberphysical systems both self-aware and self-healing. Using the background noise within these systems\u2019 data streams, Abdel-Khalik and his students embed invisible, ever-changing, one-time-use signals<\/a> that turn passive components into active watchers. Even if an attacker<\/a> is armed with a perfect duplicate of a system\u2019s model, any attempt to introduce falsified data will be immediately detected and rejected by the system itself, requiring no human response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It sounds like a scene from a spy thriller. An attacker gets through the IT defenses of a nuclear power plant and feeds it fake, realistic data, tricking its computer systems and personnel into thinking operations are normal. The attacker then disrupts the function of key plant machinery, causing it to misperform or break down. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,34,41,873,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-cybercrime-malcode","category-information-science","category-nuclear-energy","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}