CIF: EAGER: Everlasting Security in Disadvantaged Wireless Environments

该项目开发了一种在无线通信网络中保护信息免受对手拦截的新方法，特别关注窃听者获得比期望接收方更高质量的传输信号的场景。在这种情况下提供保护的标准方法是对信息进行加密，使其超出窃听者解密消息的计算能力；这种方法长期以来一直受到批评，包括缺乏基本证据来证明向对手提出的问题的难度。该项目提出了一种永久安全的方法，利用某些非线性算子的非交换性：相同的两个非线性系统的不同排序应用于相同的输入信号可以产生不同的输出。该特性被用于无线通信链路的安全性，通过使用短期加密密钥迫使窃听者的信号以与期望接收方的信号相反的顺序进行非线性操作。非线性系统的适当设计会在期望的接收者和窃听者处产生信号的差异，这些差异可以被利用来实现永久保密——即使在传输后短暂的加密密钥被窃听者立即泄露或破坏。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现有方法进行比较，是该项目的技术核心。通过建立一种新的方法，扩展了获得永久安全的系统条件，为无线安全这一关键领域开辟了一条新的研究途径。特别是，利用窃听者的接收器的特性而不是假设传播信道上的噪声或损失的安全方法将提供当前系统中尚未利用的额外的安全层。此外，该项目不可或缺的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思想。这些活动通过提供引人注目的应用程序，并进一步扩大项目的影响，在关键领域提供劳动力发展。

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.