Forensic Hash for Assured Cyber-based Sensing and Communications

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The objective of this research is to address the challenge in trustworthy sensing and communications, as content-rich audio-visual streams become increasingly adapted on-the-fly for individual receivers. The proposed project develops a novel framework of Forensic Hash for Information Assurance (FASHION) in sensing and communications. The framework utilizes a strategically designed compact string and the associated decision mechanism to transcend the capabilities of conventional hash and non-intrusive forensics. Offering more forensic answers about data integrity, origin, and processing history in higher accuracy and efficiency, the proposed framework overcomes the current one-size-fit-all dilemma to enable trust assessment to a high level. The main investigations include: what evidentiary information to form forensic hash; theories and algorithms on how to compactly and securely encode forensic hash, and robustly and securely associate it with source data; attack strategies and counter-attacks; and developing a Testbed for experimental evaluation of the proposed framework.The intellectual merit lies in exploring the unchartered area of Information Forensic Hash that transcends from prior art, advancing theories and algorithms of assured cyber sensing and communications, and providing new capabilities and tools to the community. In particular, the proposal leverages recent advances in non-intrusive forensics to add flexibility and reveal richer information for trustworthiness assessment of cyber-based sensing and communications. The proposed research has the potential to open a new research area in information forensics which is very relevant to the health and development of the cyber-infrastructure.The proposed research, if successful, could have significant impact on many applications of national interests, including the US IT infrastructure, as sensing and communicating audio-visual data have become a central part in government operations and in services by the high-tech industry, whose continuing success is critical to U.S.'s economic prosperity. The broader impact comes from the seamlessly integration of research with education/outreach through the framework's Testbed and special honor programs, to actively attract and nurture under-represented students to develop a successful engineering career.