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Two Department Faculty Receive NSF Grant

September 11, 2015

Yao Liu and Jay Ligatti received a grant from NSF for $300,000. The grant is titled: "TWC: Small: Techniques and Tools for Enforcing Proximity-based Policies in Wireless Systems".

As wireless technologies become more pervasive, it becomes increasingly important for devices to authenticate the locations of other devices. For example, patients with implantable medical devices (IMDs) may reasonably expect that any device used to control their IMD would have to be within arm's reach, to help prevent unauthorized access to their device. In other words, IMDs should enforce policies based on the proximity, and in general the location, of wirelessly connected devices. Similar examples exist in many application areas: contactless payment terminals may require credit cards to be located in front of the terminals; wireless routers may require network users to be located in the same building; GPS devices may require signals to come from satellites (rather than from adversaries masquerading as satellites); and mobile phones may require signals to come from known, legitimate cell-tower locations. Hence, the security of many wireless devices could be improved by enforcing proximity-based policies on remote devices' locations.

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