CERIAS Weekly Security Seminar - Purdue University

Recorded: 09/18/2024 CERIAS Security Seminar at Purdue University Exploiting Vulnerabilities in AI-Enabled UAV: Attacks and Defense Mechanisms Ashok Vardhan Raja, Purdue University Northwest In recent years, UAVs have seen significant growth in both military and civilian applications, thanks to their high mobility and advanced sensing capabilities. This expansion has been further accelerated by rapid advancements in AI algorithms and hardware. While AI integration enhances the intelligence and efficiency of UAVs, it also introduces new security and safety concerns due to potential vulnerabilities in the underlying AI models. These vulnerabilities can be exploited by malicious actors, leading to severe security risks and operational failures. This talk will focus on securing the integration of AI into UAVs to ensure their resilience in adversarial environments. We will begin by analyzing the data sensing and processing pipeline of key sensors used in AI-enabled UAV operations,identifying areas where vulnerabilities may exist. Following this, we will explore how to develop defense mechanisms to strengthen the robustness of these AI-driven UAV systems against potential threats. AI-enabled anomaly detection. AI-enabled anomaly detection and AI-enabled UAV infrastructure inspection will be leveraged as case studies in this talk. The talk will also cover the use of Large Language Models to improve this integration's security About the speaker: Ashok Vardhan Raja is an Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity in the department of Computer Information Technology and Graphics for the College of Technology at Purdue University Northwest. His research is on secure integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cyber Physical Systems (CPS)such as UAVs for robust operations. He is expanding his current work by using Swarm of UAVs to address security issues and to other domains in the integration of AI and CPS.