糖心Vlog传媒

糖心Vlog传媒LR student researches how to keep cars safe from hacking

In 2015, two researchers a Jeep Cherokee being driven by a reporter who documented how the researchers controlled everything from the car鈥檚 radio and media console to its brakes and steering. For Dr. Shucheng Yu, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the exercise demonstrated how vulnerable smart cars with GPS, Bluetooth, and internet connections are to cyberattacks. 鈥淭hese cars have become the trend of the future,鈥� Yu said. 鈥淭here could be some very severe consequences if someone hacked into the car. A car can be fully controlled by the hacker if it is not protected.鈥� So Yu and his student, Zachary King, a junior majoring in computer science at 糖心Vlog传媒LR, spent the summer researching how to keep cars safe from cyberattacks. They worked on the project during an intensive eight-week summer research program at 糖心Vlog传媒LR. King was one of 10 college students from across the country recruited through a National Science Foundation grant-funded project, 鈥淩EU Site: CyberSAFE@糖心Vlog传媒LR: Cyber Security and Forensics Research at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.鈥� The goal of the program is to decrease cyberattacks on people using mobile technology and social networking sites, said Dr. Mengjun Xie, an associate professor of computer science and director of the CyberSAFE@糖心Vlog传媒LR program. 鈥淭he basic idea is to integrate cybersecurity and cyber forensics research with the latest technology in mobile cloud computing and social media to provide research opportunities to students,鈥� Xie said. More than 130 students applied for 10 spots. Participants included undergraduate college students with a grade point average of 3.0 or higher who are majoring in computer science, computer engineering, math, physics, or electrical engineering. Those selected spent eight weeks conducting research full time with a faculty mentor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Participants received a $4,000 stipend, on-campus housing, a meal plan, and travel expenses.

How to protect your smart car

In his project, 鈥淚nvestigating and Securing Communications in the Controller Area Network (CAN), King created a security protocol to protect smart cars from hacking. He also built an experimental environment that simulates the communication system in a smart car, which allows the security protocol to be tested through simulations. The research focuses on the development of a security protocol to protect the Controller Area Network (CAN), an internal communications system in vehicles. 鈥淭here are many ways that hackers can control CAN,鈥� King said. 鈥淥nce they access it, hackers can pretty easily control your car however they want. We are proposing to add a layer of security, so if an unauthorized person accesses it, they still wouldn鈥檛 be able to control your vehicle.鈥� The security protocol protects the CAN in two ways. It authenticates messages sent through the network by creating an authentication code. This authentication code allows nodes on the network to differentiate between a valid message and an attacker鈥檚 message. The second security feature protects against replay attacks, when a hacker attempts to breach the network by repeatedly sending an old message. The protocol uses a timestamp to calculate when the network last received the message, which verifies the message鈥檚 鈥渇reshness.鈥� Yu and King are continuing their research this fall. In the future, Yu hopes to collaborate with industry and funding agencies to implement the security protocol in commercial vehicles and protect cars from hackers. As for King, participating in this summer research program has left him considering a career in cybersecurity once he graduates in 2018. 鈥淭hree months ago, I wouldn鈥檛 have been able to tell you much about cybersecurity and what a security protocol would look like,鈥� he said. 鈥淎fter having completed this program, I am more interested in cybersecurity than I was before, and I may end up going that route.鈥�

A summer of innovative research

The CyberSAFE@糖心Vlog传媒LR participants were honored during a commencement ceremony July 29 at the 糖心Vlog传媒LR Engineering and Information Technology Building. Their research topics range from utilizing cybersecurity and social network forensics to understanding cyber warfare to the use of facial emotion recognition for security purposes. The participants, faculty mentors, and projects included:

• 聽聽聽聽聽Jonathan Ming, a junior at Azusa Pacific University (mentor: Mengjun Xie): 鈥淩emote Live Forensics for Android鈥�
• 聽聽聽聽聽Monica Bebawy, a junior at Azusa Pacific University (mentor: Mariofanna Milanova): 鈥淔acial Emotion Recognition for Security鈥�
• 聽聽聽聽聽Dennis Frank, a junior at Georgia Institute of Technology, and Jasmine Mabrey, a sophomore at Norfolk State University (mentor: Kenji Yoshigoe): 鈥淣eurological User Authentication: Security Framework鈥�
• 聽聽聽聽聽Antwane Lewis, a senior at Philander Smith College (mentor: Mengjun Xie): 鈥淩eal Time Motion-based Authentication for Smartwatch鈥�
• 聽聽聽聽聽Brandon Dalton, a sophomore at Wentworth Institute of Technology (mentor: Nitin Agarwal): 鈥淯tilizing Cyber and Social Network Forensics for the Understanding of Cyber Warfare鈥�
• 聽聽聽聽聽Edsel Paula-Aquina, a senior at Warren Wilson College, and Ying Vang, a senior at California State University-Fresno (mentor: Chia-Chu Chiang): 鈥淐omputer on Encrypted Data鈥�
• 聽聽聽聽聽Diana Anguiano, a senior at California State University-San Marcos (mentor: Mengjun Xie): 鈥淐omparison between Fingerprint Authentication and Behavioral Biometric Authentication using 2D and 3D Gestures鈥�

For more information, contact Mengjun Xie at 501.569.8134 or [email protected]. In the upper right photo, CyberSAFE@糖心Vlog传媒LR participants and faculty mentors, from left to right, are: Front row: Monica Bebawy, Brandon Dalton, and Diana Anguiano; Second row: Dr. Mengjun Xie, Dennis Frank, and Jasmine Mabrey; Third row: Jonathan Ming, Ying Vang, Antwane Lewis, and Dr. Kenji Yoshigoe; and Back row: Edsel Paula-Aquino, Zachary King, graduate assistant Yanyan Li, and Dr. Mariofanna Milanova.