SHF: Small:Enabling Practical, Secure, and Physically Unclonable Cryptographic Systems

密码学提供了一种保护通信和身份验证的手段，例如，在你和银行之间，它在日常生活中的物理和虚拟世界中都有很大的用处。密码学中一个重要的基本原则是，攻击者必须比合法用户执行不成比例的更多工作才能获得对资源的访问。然而，网络诈骗的威胁和弱密码的不安全性已经成为一个严重的问题。该项目将研究从自组装纳米结构构建安全的物理令牌系统的方法，这些纳米结构在物理上不可克隆，但可用于保护数字通信通道。这项研究的目标是了解这些设备运行背后的基础科学，以及如何设计更安全的网络物理系统。本项目的广泛影响包括三个方面：(1)系统级建模工具的开发；(2)基于自组装和密码学主题的各种非正式科学教育方法的探索；(3)在最近的研究成果的基础上，在高中、本科和研究生阶段对这一主题进行了几个补充讲座模块。

Cryptography provides a means of securing communications and authentication, e.g., between you and a bank, which has great utility in everyday life in both the physical and virtual world. An important underlying principle in cryptography is that an attacker must perform disproportionately more work than a legitimate user to achieve access to a resource. However, the threat of online fraud and the insecurity of weak passwords have grown to become a serious problem. This project will study methods for building secure, physical token-based systems from self-assembled nanostructures that are physically unclonable, yet practical for use in protecting digital communications channels. The goal of this research is to understand the fundamental science behind the operation of these devices and how to engineer more secure cyber-physical systems.The broader impact of this project includes three aspects: (1) the development of system-level modeling tools, (2) exploration of various approaches for informal science education based on the theme of self-assembly and cryptography, and (3) several supplemental lecture modules at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate level on this subject enhanced by recent research results.