SBIR Phase II: Blockchain System for Preserving Integrity of Communication Channels

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是维护商业企业、金融机构和消费者沟通渠道的完整性。 攻击者像企业一样运作，通过投资于活动，并通过使用被盗的凭据获得网络访问权限，注入勒索软件或实施直接欺诈来获得回报。这项创新旨在通过强有力和持久的对策，防止每年40 B美元的金融诈骗。90%的大型企业客户违规行为始于电子邮件或P2P/SMS消息，这些消息欺骗客户和员工泄露敏感信息。网络钓鱼攻击在第一个受害者和最后一个受害者之间平均持续21个小时，每次攻击的检测平均发生在第一个受害者之后9个小时。这给了攻击者一个机会之窗，在此期间，大部分的伤害都是在此期间造成的。该项目旨在通过实时机器学习系统识别和防范此类攻击。SBIR第二阶段项目开发了一种以高性能方式在区块链中存储数据的方法，以确保ML/AI模型的质量训练和生产级推理。 该创新解决了数据漂移和对抗性AI攻击的挑战，其中数据的来源是未知的。第二阶段项目还利用群体智能作为一种新的共识机制，专门为分布式系统中更民主的在线组对组协作而设计。 该项目的创新将扩大对电信的理解，smishing和vishing的经济性以及5G安全性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to preserve the integrity of communication channels for business enterprises, financial institutions, and consumers. Attackers operate like businesses by investing in campaigns and generate returns by using stolen credentials to gain network access, inject ransomware, or commit direct fraud. The innovation aims to prevent $4 B a year in financial scams through robust and enduring countermeasures. 90% of large enterprise customer breaches start from email or p2p/SMS messages that trick customers and employees into revealing sensitive information. An average phishing attack spans 21 hours between the first and last victim and the detection of each attack occurs an average 9 hours after the first victim. This gives attackers a window of opportunity during which most of the damage is done. This project seeks to identify and protect against such attacks through a real-time machine learning system. This SBIR Phase II project develops a method for storing data in a blockchain in a high-performing manner, to ensure quality training of ML/AI models, and production level inference. The innovation addresses the challenge of data drift and adversarial AI attacks where the provenance of the data is unknown. The Phase II project also leverages swarm intelligence as a new consensus mechanism specifically designed for more democratic online group-to-group collaboration in a distributed system. The project's innovations will expand the understanding of telecommunications, the economics of smishing and vishing, and 5G security.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.