CIF: EAGER: Everlasting Security in Disadvantaged Wireless Environments

这个项目开发了一种新的方法来保护无线通信网络中的信息免受对手的拦截，特别关注窃听者获得比期望接收者更高质量的传输信号的情况。在这种情况下提供保护的标准方法是对信息进行加密，使其超出窃听者的计算能力来解密消息；这种方法长期以来一直受到批评，包括缺乏基本证据来确定向对手提出的问题的难度。该项目提出了一种持久安全的方法，该方法利用了某些非线性算子的不可交换性：对相同的输入信号施加相同的两个非线性系统的不同次序可以产生不同的输出。在无线通信链路中，通过使用短期密码密钥来强制窃听者的信号以与期望接收者处的信号的顺序相反的顺序进行非线性操作，来利用这一特性来实现安全性。非线性系统的适当设计在期望的接收者和窃听者处产生了信号的差异，这些差异可以被用于永久保密--即使在传输后立即向窃听者泄露或被窃听者破解了短暂的密钥。在适用的系统约束下开发该方法，并将所获得的安全性能与当前方法进行比较，构成了该项目的技术核心。通过建立一种新的方法，扩展获得永久安全的系统条件，在无线安全的这一关键领域开辟了一条新的研究途径。具体地说，利用窃听者的接收器的特性而不是传播信道上的噪声或损耗的假设的安全方法将提供在当前系统中尚未利用的额外的安全层。此外，该项目的组成部分是本科生和研究生的参与，高中教师的研究经验将从该项目中汲取技术想法。这些活动通过提供引人注目的应用程序，在关键领域提供劳动力发展，并进一步扩大项目的影响。

This project develops a new approach to protecting information from interception by adversaries in wireless communication networks, with a particular focus on the scenario where an eavesdropper obtains a higher-quality version of the transmitted signal than the desired recipient. The standard method of providing protection in such a situation is to encrypt the information so that it is beyond the eavesdropper's computational capabilities to decrypt the message; this approach has met with longstanding critiques, including the lack of a fundamental proof establishing the difficulty of the problem presented to the adversary. An approach to everlasting security initiated in this project exploits the non-commutativity of certain nonlinear operators: different orderings of the same two nonlinear systems applied to the same input signal can produce different outputs. This property is exploited for security in wireless communication links by employing a short-term cryptographic key to force the eavesdropper's signal to be subjected to nonlinear operations in the reverse order of that of the signal at the desired recipient. The appropriate design of the nonlinear systems yields differences in the signals at the desired recipient and eavesdropper that can be exploited for everlasting secrecy - even when the ephemeral cryptographic key is revealed to or broken by the eavesdropper immediately after transmission. The development of this approach under applicable system constraints and a comparison of the obtained security performance to current approaches form the technical core of this project. By establishing a new approach that expands the system conditions under which everlasting security is obtained, a new avenue of research opens in this critical area of wireless security. In particular, a security approach that exploits characteristics of the eavesdropper's receiver rather than assumptions of noise or loss on the propagation channel will provide an extra layer of security that has not been exploited in current systems. Also, integral to the project is the involvement of undergraduate and graduate students, and a research experience for high school teachers will draw technical ideas from the project. These activities provide workforce development in a critical area by providing a compelling application and further broaden the impact of the project.