Space exploration, online interference, AI: Safeguarding our cyber security

New technology is changing how we conduct both business and leisure activities online– but these innovations also introduce a raft of threats to our digital security.

When it comes to how we communicate, we've come a long way from the humble telephone. Today online communication tools for business are crucial. And it's crucial those communications work seamlessly. 

Everything from satellite navigation systems, and emergency services radios, to remote sensing in hospital intensive care units, all rely on the clear transfer of messages using electromagnetic waves, yet vital wireless communications are at risk when nobody rules these electromagnetic waves.

With more devices operating online, and only a limited amount of bandwidth, wireless data links are at risk from both accidental and intentional interference. Flinders University experts are examining how best to secure our wireless world – by identifying which broadcasts are fake and which are genuine. While illegal, it is now possible to fake GPS and other signals due to the online availability of cheap electronic devices. Such devices are also used to break into modern cars.

Identifying who creates online interference

“Trusted communication is the biggest challenge we're facing, particularly as technologies become ever-more sophisticated,” says Professor Sam Drake, co-director of Flinders’ Centre for Defence Engineering Research and Training.

Professor Drake’s research focuses on Spectrum Security, which examines the physical properties of electromagnetic waves, and how they are transmitted and received by intended recipients without being compromised. He is also concerned with locating illegal electromagnetic transmitters such as mobile phone jammers, GPS jammers, wi-fi jammers, drone jammers and mobile phone boosters – a growing risk to our communications. 

“With very little equipment, we can give a false GPS position, or deny a GPS signal,” says Professor Drake. 

“Devices that can be bought legally for as little as $600 can interrupt signals everywhere from navigation systems, to broadcast radio, to Bluetooth.” 

Strong network cybersecurity has never been more important, with the potential for deep-fake signals and other technologies to interfere with aviation and transport systems, and cause inconvenience, even danger to citizens who rely on critical infrastructure.

Professor Drake and his team are analysing the frequency spectra to build a 3D picture to determine what – and who – is occupying various transmission spaces. 

Testing future outcomes

AI, remote internet and Cloud systems could be used by hostile players to hack systems and exploit weaknesses in vital transport and power supplies. To help counter such threats, and develop effective defence strategies, Flinders has developed real world testbeds that simulate and analyse highly advanced cyberattack scenarios. 

Flinders’ Smart City model includes software and hardware systems linking a large metropolitan hospital, electrical substation and backup power generation and traffic intersections, providing a practical insight into the complex real-life potential for big breakdowns in critical infrastructure systems.

“The ability to predict hostile actions, combined with the implementation of self-defence mechanisms, is key to protecting our critical infrastructure,” explains Associate Professor Alireza Jolfaei, an expert in cyber-physical systems security.

Protecting Cyber Activity in Space

Sharing space and cyber technology in a safe manner is vital, with the global policy and legal landscape under rapid change, driven by the global nature of space and cyber. Flinders researchers are busy examining new space architectures, which will identify new problems and drive solutions within the space cyber segment.

The resurgence of space exploration and interstellar activity, means that cyber security threats now extend to a wider domain – far beyond earth.

Cybersecurity in the space domain is an emerging area of focus for government and industry around the world, and Professor Rodrigo Praino, who leads the Jeff Bleich Centre (JBC) for Democracy and Disruptive Technologies at Flinders University, focuses on expanding security through space cyber policy and law advances.

“The most probable source of a space attack is actually a cyberattack- it is cost-efficient, stealthy, and can operate below the threshold of open conflict,” he warns.

Global data security research expands

To combat the ever-changing shape and severity of cyber security threats, Flinders University has partnered with a leading US data research centre at the University of Virginia to expand research and knowledge exchange in the areas of artificial intelligence, data security and democracy. 

Technology plays an essential role in the operation of modern society but when misused can present existential threats to the operation of modern democracies across the world. 

Flinders research is considering these risks in the broader global security context and rapidly shifting global dynamics – and such advances are leading to new international collaboration in technology, science and engineering and other disciplines.  

Examining the reasons behind cyber aggression

Online technologies provide a powerful lens that magnifies aspects of social behaviour, prompting questions about many of the psychological aspects of online engagement.

“The technology may be new, but the psychology is old,” says Professor Emma Thomas, a social psychologist examining why and how people engage with online campaigns. 

“We can see that the behaviours of people engaging in revolutions and political violence, or even misinformation and rumour, are being expressed and exposed on an immense, never-before seen scale thanks to social media – and sometimes, these interactions have a corrosive effect on our democracy.”

The new research being conducted in this area is attached to growing defence and national security concern about cybersecurity that extends to online influence and misinformation. This area of research pulls together many resources at Flinders University, with ties to criminology, psychology and collaborative work with the Jeff Bleich Centre and the Torrens Resilience Institute – one of Australia’s longest-standing research initiatives dedicated to disaster preparedness and management. The research is helping government, communities and nations balance disaster preparedness and prevention, response and recovery.