Francesco COLACE | Automotive and Cyber-physical Systems Security Lab (A-CSS LAB)

1. Mission and Research Interests

The laboratory's research activities are focused on the security of the so-called Cyber-physical systems (CPS), with particular emphasis on the automotive sector. CPSs have a wide range of applications, including smart cities, smart grids, smart manufacturing, e-health, structural health monitoring, intelligent transport, etc. Therefore, these systems play an increasingly important role in critical infrastructures and in many daily life activities, impacting the economic, social, and environmental fields. In particular, the main research objectives of the laboratory concern the study, design, and development of secure CPS through the use of advanced methodologies and techniques, also based on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, which allow studying, modeling, and analyze very complex phenomena, for which conventional methods do not seem to find optimal and low-cost results. Furthermore, the laboratory aims to represent a reference for designing, validating, and certifying resilient and secure systems.

The laboratory pursues theoretical, methodological, and technological objectives for each of the topics above and research sectors. In particular, the theoretical objectives materialize in the definition of models, algorithms, and architectures to support the problems inherent in the sectors listed above. In contrast, the methodological objectives are oriented towards defining organizational and structural paradigms on which to base the study and treatment of typical processes of these sectors. The definition of the theoretical models and paradigms mentioned above is constantly accompanied by technological research relating to hardware and software tools to support these processes and their prototype realization.

In detail, the main research activities of the laboratory concern:

• Intelligent Security;
• Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Mining and Reasoning in Cyber Physical Systems;
• Cyber risk analytics and Artificial Intelligence;
• Applied and Lightweight Cryptography;
• Internet of Things (IoT) Security;
• Automotive, Drone, Maritime, Smart Buildings;
• IoT Device Vulnerability Assessment;
• Cyber Physical Attacks and Countermeasures;
• Situational Awareness and Secure Management of Cyber-Physical Critical Infrastructures;
• Penetration testing for Cyber-Physical Systems.

2. Reference ISI WEB of Science Categories

• Computer Science, Hardware & Architecture;
• Computer Science, Information Systems;
• Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications;
• Computer Science, Theory & Methods;
• Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence;
• Automation & Control Systems;

3. Reference ERC Categories

• PE1_16 Mathematical aspects of computer science;
• PE1_18 Scientific computing and data processing;
• PE1_19 Control theory and optimization;
• PE1_20 Application of mathematics in sciences;
• PE1_21 Application of mathematics in industry and society;
• PE6_1 Computer architecture, pervasive computing, ubiquitous computing;
• PE6_2 Computer systems, parallel/distributed systems, sensor networks, embedded systems, cyber-physical systems;
• PE6_5 Cryptology, security, privacy, quantum cryptography;
• PE6_7 Artificial intelligence, intelligent systems, multi agent systems;
• PE6_11 Machine learning, statistical data processing and applications using signal processing (e.g., speech, image, video);
• PE6_12 Scientific computing, simulation and modelling tools;
• PE7_1 Control engineering;
• PE7_8 Networks (communication networks, sensor networks, networks of robots, etc.).

4. Scientific-Disciplinary Sectors of Reference

• INF/01 (COMPUTER SCIENCE);
• ING-INF/05 (INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEMS);

5. Teaching Activities

Besides carrying out research activities, the laboratory is mainly addressed to students coming from Bachelor's and Master's Degree courses in Computer Science, engaged in the development of models and applications belonging to different research areas, such as IoT security, automotive, drone, and maritime and smart buildings, cybersecurity and CPS penetration testing.

6. Equipment supplied by the Laboratory

• OBDsim-680C Ultra Professional OBD-II Simulator (CAN-Bus OBD-II ECU Simulator with Development Kit and Vehicle Drive Emulator)
• OBDLink SX (CAN-Bus OBD-II ECU Simulator with Development Kit and Vehicle Drive Emulator)
• OBD Development Kit (CAN-Bus OBD-II ECU Simulator with Development Kit and Vehicle Drive Emulator)
• ECU Simulator Standard (CAN-Bus OBD-II ECU Simulator with Development Kit and Vehicle Drive Emulator)
• DriveSim-100- DriveSim-100-AFS+Cluster (CAN-Bus OBD-II ECU Simulator with Development Kit and Vehicle Drive Emulator)
• Data analytics software.

7. Website

• unisa.it

8. Contacts

• E-mail: acsslab@unisa.it
• Phone: +39089969306
• Phone: +39089963306
• Phone: +39089969594