Guarding Against ‘Carmageddon’ Cyberattacks

by  David Salisbury,  Vanderbilt University News

The potential value of turning the nation’s freeways into “smart transportation systems” is enormous. Equipping the nation’s concrete arteries with a nervous system of computers and sensors that directly control on-ramp signals to keep traffic moving smoothly can substantially reduce travel times, fuel consumption and air pollution, not to mention improve road safety. In California alone the economic penalty of traffic congestion has been estimated at $400 million in extra costs and $3.5 million in lost wages every day.

The tightly integrated computing and networking systems required to achieve these benefits are currently under development. But they have a worrisome downside: They are vulnerable to cyber attacks by criminals, terrorists or hostile nations. There was a Hollywood dramatization of this risk in the 2003 movie “The Italian Job” when a hacker takes control of the Los Angeles traffic control system to aid his confederates in stealing a load of gold bullion from an armored car and then escaping.

Security researchers at Vanderbilt University’s Institute of Software Integrated Systems (ISIS), the University of California, Berkeley, and the Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology’s Connected Corridors project are working on the Smart Roads Cyber-Physical Systems project.

The researchers are developing tools and technologies to unite aspects of major traffic corridors and operate them as an integrated system. The first pilot project will be implemented on a multi-modal, heavily congested corridor in southern California and will include freeway ramp meters and arterial signal systems that work together.

The researchers say they used advanced computational methods to examine how different types of cyberattacks affect computer networks, and they are modifying the methods so they work with traffic control systems. “The immediate object of our project is to identify the characteristics of such attacks so that system operators can recognize them when they happen and take the effective steps required to counteract them,” says ISIS team leader Gabor Karsai.

“The longer-term goal is to develop algorithms that can automatically detect these intrusions and nip them in the bud.” The researchers also have developed a video scenario depicting how such an attack could take place, the effect it would have on the freeway, and the tools traffic system operators could use to identify the attack, reduce its impact, and return traffic flow to normal levels.  Report