EECS Seminar: Secure Virtual-physical Binding for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles

Abstract: In connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) applications, vehicles exchange information with each other or the infrastructure via vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, which is leveraged for automated decision making to enhance traffic safety and efficiency. The security of CAV applications is extremely important, however the inclusion of V2X messages enlarges the attack surface. Entities and the information sent via V2X messages cannot be fully trusted, and control decisions made upon false information can lead to unsafe consequences. Traditional cryptographic approaches can authenticate digital identities and verify message integrity, but not the corresponding physical attributes. In this talk, I will present our recent research on designing primitives to enable secure binding of digital identities or information with the underlying physical properties, in the context of CAV applications. These include methods for proving vehicle following relationships for platoon membership verification, as well as verifying vehicle motion claims from V2X messages without using additional sensors. Finally, I will discuss future directions on extending trust from the cyber domain to the physical world. 

Bio: Ming Li is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Arizona, and also affiliated with the Department of Computer Science. He was an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Utah State University from 2011 to 2015. He received his doctorate in ECE from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA, in 2011. His main research interests are wireless and cybersecurity, with current emphases on security and privacy for next-generation wireless networks, privacy-preserving data analytics and cyberphysical system security. He received the NSF CAREER Award in 2014, and the ONR YIP Award in 2016. His works have been published in top conferences in security and networking. He has received several best paper/poster awards from various conferences/workshops, including a best paper award from ACM WiSec 2020. He has served/is serving on the editorial boards of IEEE TMC and TDSC. He is a senior member of IEEE and a member of ACM.