More Like this

1. The Ohio State Model For ICS Cybersecurity

   https://doi.org/10.1109/ICMIAM54662.2021.9715206  

   Allen, Theodore T.; McCarty, John; Feng, Tu; Tseng, Shih-Hsien; Buck, Vimal; Pardee, Robert (July 2021, 2021 International Conference on Maintenance and Intelligent Asset Management (ICMIAM))

   We propose a simple framework for Industrial Control System (ICS) system cybersecurity. The proposed system is based on considerations which include known vulnerabilities, safety issues, and the centrality of assets in hypothetical attack vectors. We relate the proposed system to the Purdue Model and two optimization formulations from the literature. We also relate our point system to the results of a recent penetration testing exercise on a manufacturing robotic cell. Finally, we discuss multiple challenges including that posed by legacy equipment and threats to manufacturing uptime. 

   more » « less
2. Protect the System Call, Protect (Most of) the World with BASTION

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3582016.3582066  

   Jelesnianski, Christopher; Ismail, Mohannad; Jang, Yeongjin; Williams, Dan; Min, Changwoo (March 2023, Proceedings of the 28th ACM International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems)

   Tor M. Aamodt; Natalie D. Enright Jerger; Michael M. Swift (Ed.)

   System calls are a critical building block in many serious security attacks, such as control-flow hijacking and privilege escalation attacks. Security-sensitive system calls (e.g., execve, mprotect), especially play a major role in completing attacks. Yet, few defense efforts focus to ensure their legitimate usage, allowing attackers to maliciously leverage system calls in attacks. In this paper, we propose a novel System Call Integrity, which enforces the correct use of system calls throughout runtime. We propose three new contexts enforcing (1) which system call is called and how it is invoked (Call Type), (2) how a system call is reached (Control Flow), and (3) that arguments are not corrupted (Argument Integrity). Our defense mechanism thwarts attacks by breaking the critical building block in their attack chains. We implement Bastion, as a compiler and runtime monitor system, to demonstrate the efficacy of the three system call contexts. Our security case study shows that Bastion can effectively stop all the attacks including real-world exploits and recent advanced attack strategies. Deploying Bastion on three popular system call-intensive programs, NGINX, SQLite, and vsFTPd, we show Bastion is secure and practical, demonstrating overhead of 0.60%, 2.01%, and 1.65%, respectively 

   more » « less
3. Task-Relevant Evaluation Metrics of Object Detection for Quantitative System-Level Analysis of Safety-Critical Autonomous Systems

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3771284  

   Badithela, Apurva; Srivastav, Ranai; Wongpiromsarn, Tichakorn; Murray, Richard (October 2025, ACM Transactions on Cyber-Physical Systems)

   In safety-critical robotic systems, perception is tasked with representing the environment to effectively guide decision-making and plays a crucial role in ensuring that the overall system meets its requirements. To quantitatively assess the impact of object detection and classification errors on system-level performance, we present a rigorous formalism for a model of detection error, and probabilistically reason about the satisfaction of regular-safety temporal logic requirements at the system level. We also show how standard evaluation metrics for object detection, such as confusion matrices, can be represented as models of detection error, which enables the computation of probabilistic satisfaction of system-level specifications. However, traditional confusion matrices treat all detections equally, without considering their relevance to the system-level task. To address this limitation, we propose novel evaluation metrics for object detection that are informed by both the system-level task and the downstream control logic, enabling a more context-appropriate evaluation of detection models. We identify logic-based formulas relevant to the downstream control and system-level specifications and use these formulas to define a logic-based evaluation metric for object detection and classification. These logic-based metrics result in less conservative assessments of system-level performance. Finally, we demonstrate our approach on a car-pedestrian example with a leaderboard PointPillars model evaluated on the nuScenes dataset, and validate probabilistic system-level guarantees in simulation. 

   more » « less
4. The Cost on System Performance of Requirements on Differentiable Variables

   https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4049336  

   Hazelrigg, George A.; Stolfi, Philip (May 2021, Journal of Mechanical Design)

   Abstract System design is commonly thought of as a process of maximizing a design objective subject to constraints, among which are the system requirements. Given system-level requirements, a convenient management approach is to disaggregate the system into subsystems and to “flowdown” the system-level requirements to the subsystem or lower levels. We note, however, that requirements truly are constraints, and they typically impose a penalty on system performance. Furthermore, disaggregation of the system-level requirements into the flowdown requirements creates added sets of constraints, all of which have the potential to impose further penalties on overall system performance. This is a highly undesirable effect of an otherwise beneficial system design management process. This article derives conditions that may be imposed on the flowdown requirements to assure that they do not penalize overall system performance beyond the system-level requirement. 

   more » « less
5. Value change debt as a window of opportunity for transformative change: a case study on the mixed Indigenous food system of St. Paul Island, Alaska

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-025-01665-z  

   Zimmermann, Silja; Dermody, Brian J; Carothers, Courtney; Di_Fant, Valeria; Divine, Lauren M; Lestenkof-Zacharof, Kadyn; Padula, Veronica M; Theunissen, Bert; Wassen, Martin J; Dorresteijn, Ine (September 2025, Sustainability Science)

   Abstract Arctic Indigenous food systems are essential to the survival of local communities, but face significant challenges due to environmental, economic, and social pressures. The objective of this study is to elicit values of the mixed Indigenous food system on St. Paul Island, Alaska, and understand their potential as deep leverage points for transformative change in the context of their historical co-evolution with the local food system. To achieve this objective, we engage three generational groups within the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island to obtain local food system stories. From these stories, we (i) elicit historical events that are thought to have shaped the local food system, (ii) identify factors that influence the food system in its present and future states, and (iii) delineate intrinsic, instrumental, and relational food system values. Our findings show that most identified historical events are perceived to have undermined the Indigenous food system and that most factors identified to shape present and future food system states present barriers for community members to engage in traditional practices. Yet, despite this, values that relate to traditional Indigenous livelihoods remain central in the local value system. These results suggest a value change debt, i.e., a time lag between changes in peoples’ held values following changes in the system around them. We propose that this lag provides a window of opportunity to leverage transformative change. We argue that as long as traditional food system values persist, there is potential to reconfigure the food system in a way that embraces these values, enhancing the system's relevance to the community's way of life. 

   more » « less