PARC and George Mason University selected for DARPA configuration security project

The Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC) and George Mason University (GMU) have been awarded a contract from the U.S. Defence Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) Configuration Security program (ConSec). Researchers from PARC and GMU will collaborate on project SCIBORG: Secure Configurations for the Internet of Things (IoT) based on Optimisation and Reasoning on Graphs. The goal of SCIBORG is to devise fundamentally new approaches to determine security configurations that protect critical infrastructure and IoT-based systems.
“SCIBORG will measure its success in terms of the reduction of the impact of potential attacks. To reason about the security of an IoT configuration, it is important to evaluate the attack paths that are available to the adversary,” said Hamed Soroush, Senior Researcher at PARC and the Principal Investigator. “Configuration settings that reduce the impact of these attack paths would, by this line of reasoning, be more secure.”
The ConSec program aims to develop new approaches to generate and deploy secure configurations of components that make up large cyber-physical and cyber-military systems. Particularly desired are configurations that will minimise the vulnerability to attacks while maintaining the expected functionality and performance. This is an intractable problem because the space of possible configuration settings is extremely large and because it is not clear how to reason about security and functionality in a system-of-systems scenario.
“SCIBORG’s focus on attack paths has an interesting side benefit; it provides one way to generate evidence explaining why a chosen configuration is more secure,” said Shantanu Rane, who manages the Cyber-Physical Systems Security research area at PARC and will be the co-principal investigator on this project.
To achieve SCIBORG’s goals, PARC and GMU researchers will explore per-component configurations and construct graph-based models to capture within-component and between-component dependencies among configuration elements. They will seek efficient and automated approaches to minimise the impact of possible attack paths, while maintaining functionality and performance.
“SCIBORG’s approach explicitly encodes constraints on the configuration parameters using graph-based models, allowing us to significantly reduce the actual number of configurations that need to be tested for security and functionality,” said Ersin Uzun, director of PARC’s System Sciences Laboratory.
PARC has several decades of experience in creating and developing model-based reasoning projects and have been a successful performer on several past DARPA programs in this area. Massimiliano Albanese, associate professor in the GMU Department of Information Sciences and Technology, will serve as a faculty collaborator on SCIBORG. Prof. Albanese has played a leading role in developing the approaches that facilitate joint reasoning about security and functionality in system-of-systems scenarios.
www.parc.com

About Security Buyer

Security Buyer is the leading authority in global security content, delivering expert news, in-depth articles, exclusive interviews, and industry insights across print, digital, and event platforms. Published 10 times a year, the magazine is a trusted resource for professionals seeking updates and analysis on the latest developments in the security sector.

To submit an article, or for sponsorship opportunities, please contact our team below.

Rebecca Spayne picture 2025

Rebecca Spayne

Managing
EDITOR

Georgina Turner image

Georgina Turner

Sales
Manager

Afua Akoto image - Security Buyer

Afua Akoto

Marketing Manager

Read the Latest Issue

Follow us on X

Follow us on X

Click Here

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on LinkedIn

Click Here

Advertise here

Reach decision makers and amplify your marketing

Advertise here

Click Here

Related News

IPSA

Finalists revealed for 2024 LGBTQ+ Defence Awards

The shortlist is today revealed for the leading celebration of inclusion in the defence, aerospace and security industry – the LGBTQ..
Essen

Security Essen presents disaster control requirements

What to do if a disaster suddenly strikes? Whether it is flooding, a major fire or a power cut – every second counts in an emergency.
ASSA ABLOY

ASSA ABLOY Digital Access Solutions wins award

A revolutionary mobile access solution, ABLOY CUMULUS has been awarded Security Innovation of the Year at the prestigious Fire…
sec conf

Telford welcomes UK’s first specialist defence and security conference

Telford International Centre (TIC) is set to host the UK’s first Specialist Defence and Security Convention (SDSC-UK) on
Advanced

Advanced Security’s Supplier of the Year

Security manufacturer, Gallagher, were honoured to be named the winner of Advanced Security’s Supplier of the Year Award for 2021/2022
Nozomi networks

Nozomi networks awarded for operational technology and iot cybersecurity

Nozomi networks awarded for operational technology and iot cybersecurity. Based on its recent analysis of the global operational technology

Atlas Security’s Hasan Afzal wins award at OSPAs

Atlas Security’s Hasan Afzal has won the Outstanding Security Officer award in the 2022 UK Outstanding Security Performance Awards (OSPAs).
Gallagher

Gallagher recognised for innovation with Adaptive Thresholds Feature

Gallagher ’s innovative Adaptive Thresholds Feature took home the Outstanding New Product of the Year award at the New Zealand Security
SoloInsight

SoloInsight Founder Farhan Masood awarded ‘Einstein’ Visa

Soloinsight Founder, President, and CTO Farhan Masood has been awarded the prestigious United States EB-1A visa.

Co-op launches SmartWater fog cannons to combat crime

Co-op’s commitment to colleague and community safety has seen the ‘launch’ SmartWater fog designed to deter crime by deploying a dence fog.
Scroll to Top