CICI: RSARC: Secure Time for Cyberinfrastructure Security

准确的时间标记和跟踪在科学发现和技术进步中起着关键作用。科学发现越来越依赖于更精确、更可靠的计时。例如，精确的时间同步使GPS(全球定位系统)系统能够准确地测量科学仪器分布式组件之间的距离。此外，移动电话基站和数据网络之间的时钟紧密同步，使移动手持设备能够更有效地共享有限的无线电频谱。事实上，许多现代关键基础设施，包括计算机网络、通信系统、电网和金融网络，都依赖于精确的时间和时间同步来实现高效和安全的运行。然而，现有的常用时间同步方法，包括GPS和网络时间协议(NTP)，都极易受到攻击。随着云计算资源以及新型传感和计算基础设施的融合，现代研究网络基础设施迅速向分布式体系结构发展，针对时间基础设施的攻击增加，为具有弹性的时间服务开发安全的时间同步方法至关重要。本项目的重点是为采用两种最常用的时间同步机制，即基于GPS的同步和基于NTP的同步的网络基础设施提供新颖的整体时间安全方法。更具体地说，该项目寻求为所有民用GPS时间用户提供作为国家服务的安全解决方案。它还将开发和原型基于冗余的NTP同步安全解决方案，并将额外的通信开销降至最低。主要内容是：i)在克莱姆森大学建立一个参考GPS接收器和服务器，可用于美国各地的GPS接收器通过交叉检查GPS信号中的加密军事代码来检测欺骗攻击；ii)开发基于脉冲的冗余同步方法，以验证NTP提供的网络时间的可靠性；iii)在洪水监测平台和气象站平台上试验两种安全时间方法的原型，并使用它们与信息技术(IT)部门合作保护Clemson的校园NTP授时网络。

The accurate marking and tracking of time plays a key role in scientific discovery and technology advancement. Scientific discovery is becoming increasingly reliant on more precise and reliable timekeeping. For example, the precise synchronization of time enables GPS (Global Positioning System) systems to accurately measure distances between distributed components of scientific instruments. Furthermore, tightly synchronized clocks between the base stations of mobile phone and data networks enable mobile handsets to share limited radio spectrum more efficiently. In fact, many modern critical infrastructures including computer networks, communication systems, electrical power grids, and financial networks rely on precise time and time synchronization for efficient ¬¬and safe operations. However, existing commonly used time synchronization approaches, including both GPS and the Network Time Protocol (NTP), are extremely vulnerable to attacks. As modern research cyberinfrastructure quickly evolves towards a distributed architecture with the incorporation of cloud computing resources and new forms of sensing and computing infrastructures, and as attacks on the time infrastructure have increased, developing secure time synchronization approaches for resilient time service is of paramount importance.The focus of this project is to provide novel and holistic approaches to enable time security for cyberinfrastructures that employ the two most commonly used time synchronization mechanisms, i.e., GPS based and NTP based synchronization. More specifically, the project seeks to provide a security solution as a national service for all civil GPS time users. It will also develop and prototype a redundancy based security solution to NTP synchronization with minimal extra communication overhead. The main thrusts are to: i) establish a reference GPS receiver and server at Clemson University that can be used for GPS receivers across the US to detect spoofing attacks by cross checking encrypted military code in GPS signals; ii) develop a pulse based redundant synchronization approach to verify the reliability of network time provided by NTP; iii) experimentally prototype the two secure time approaches on a flood monitoring platform and a weather station platform, and use them to secure Clemson's campus NTP timing network in collaboration with the Information Technology (IT) department.