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At least 109 records · Page 6

ROS-Ethereum: A Convenient Tool to Bridge ROS and Blockchain (Ethereum)

Robot Operating System (ROS) has received widespread utilization with the development of robotics, self-driving, etc., recently. Meanwhile, the other technology blockchain is frequently applied to various fields with its trustworthy characteristics and immutability in data storage. However, ROS has no ability to interact with the blockchain, which hinders research in related fields. Therefore, we wonder if we can develop a convenient tool to bridge ROS and blockchain. Inspired by this, we propose ROS-Ethereum. It bridges ROS and Ethereum, a widely used blockchain platform. ROS-Ethereum is based on the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) communication mechanism and the SM algorithm family along with Ethereum technology. Simply put, ROS-Ethereum allows users to invoke the contract when interacting with the blockchain, which makes this process easier and safer. We conduct experiments in real robots to verify the effectiveness of ROS-Ethereum and evaluate it from the following metrics: (1) the encryption efficiency and stability of the algorithm and (2) ROS-Ethereum transaction response time and packet loss rate.

Zhang, Shenhui↗

Java Software Extensibility Library

The Java Software Extensibility Library provides tools that help Java software developers produce flexible and extensible Java applications. The major components include a Plugin Library and a Polymorphic Map data structure. The Plugin Library provides developers with a Plugin Registry and a standard pattern for designing, versioning, registering, retrieving, and annotating plugins. It also enables advanced capabilities such as loading plugins at runtime, and creating/loading encrypted plugin packages. The Polymorphic Map data structure facilitates the storage and retrieval of objects of varying types within a single data structure; while maintaining type safety. The library also provides a standard design pattern for producing application-specific "Domain Maps" and "Closed Domain Maps".SAND2020-3816 M Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Fleschute, Christopher↗

ModuleOT

ModuleOT is an open hardware security platform which provides all features necessary for securing remote energy resources. The platform consists of a physical bump in-the wire device which runs a custom-built application built with Go and Python and leverages AES-NI Instruction set available on modern hardware for cryptographic acceleration. By combining these features, ModuleOT acts as an all-in-one low-cost solution to enable cryptographically secured communications to any critical remote servers or devices. Because the software application has been built using Golang, this source can be easily compiled for different hardware platforms. The module is designed to provide the following core features: (1) encrypted communications across an untrusted network, (2) certificate-based authentication with secure storage, (3) hardware cryptographic acceleration, (4) IP-based whitelisting, (5) local firewall management, and (6) legacy (RS485) device support.

Hasandka, Adarsh↗

ESnet Secure Copy (EScp) v0.6

EScp is a high speed transfer tool with a similar command line syntax to scp. Unlike SCP it is designed to transfer files at high speed, thus far we have been able to show 100gbit/s transfers, although I expect that the throughput should scale in proportion to the network interface, i.e. I expect 400gbit/s performance on our 400gbit/s test bed. EScp achieves good performance through an innovative design (multithreaded, zero copy transfers), along with pluggable filters and I/O engines. As an example, you can switch from POSIX i/O to UIO by checking a different engine. It also natively supports encryption, and cheksums for file verification and transport security. AAA is through standard SSH (same as SCP). By taking advantage of filters, EScp supports transferring unstructured data and/or I/O to non-posix data sources. Examples include streaming data (i.e. from equipment), transferring data to the cloud, and/or supporting non-posix file systems (like HPSS).

Shiflett, Charles↗

MasQiTT

SAND2025-03471O MasQiTT software is a proof-of-concept code that implements the Secure MQTT protocol. It demonstrates a publish/subscribe model of message passing within a network where the publishers can encrypt messages according to a topic and the subscribers can decrypt those messages. The example code shows an example of deployment of an end-to-end system that includes certificate authority and key management in addition to basic implementation of the protocol. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Fisher, Andrew [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Liv↗

Infrared phase-change chiral metasurfaces with tunable circular dichroism

Integrating phase-change materials in metasurfaces has emerged as a powerful strategy to realize optical devices with tunable electromagnetic responses. Here, phase-change chiral metasurfaces based on GST-225 material with the designed trapezoid-shaped resonators are demonstrated to achieve tunable circular dichroism (CD) responses in the infrared regime. The asymmetric trapezoid-shaped resonators are designed to support two chiral plasmonic resonances with opposite CD responses for realizing switchable CD between negative and positive values using the GST phase change from amorphous to crystalline. The electromagnetic field distributions of the chiral plasmonic resonant modes are analyzed to understand the chiroptical responses of the metasurface. Furthermore, the variations in the absorption spectrum and CD value for the metasurface as a function of the baking time during the GST phase transition are analyzed to reveal the underlying thermal tuning process of the metasurface. The demonstrated phase-change metasurfaces with tunable CD responses hold significant promise in enabling many applications in the infrared regime such as chiral sensing, encrypted communication, and thermal imaging.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Cyber–Physical System Security of Distribution Systems

The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for control and monitoring of power systems is a layer on top of the physical power system infrastructure. The cyber system and physical power system components form a tightly coupled Cyber–Physical System (CPS). Sources of vulnerabilities arise from the computing and communication systems of the cyber–power grid. Cyber intrusions targeting the power grid are serious threats to the reliability of electricity supply that is critical to society and the economy. In a typical Information Technology environment, numerous attack scenarios have shown how unauthorized users can access and manipulate protected information from a network domain. The need for cyber security has led to industry standards that power grids must meet to ensure that the monitoring, operation, and control functions are not disrupted by cyber intrusions. Cyber security technologies such as encryption and authentication have been deployed on the CPS. Intrusion or anomaly detection and mitigation tools developed for power grids are emerging. Furthermore, this survey paper provides the basic concepts of cyber vulnerabilities of distribution systems and CPS security. The important ICT subjects for distribution systems covered in this paper include Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition, Distributed Energy Resources, including renewable energy and smart meters.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Enterprise Credentialing Service Statement of Work (SOW)

The scope of this project includes providing professional services in support of the development and deployment of an Enterprise Credentialing Service for the Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which will be used for issuing and managing credentials used for authentication, digital signature, and encryption functions by users, applications, and devices in a closed computing environment. The Seller shall provide subject matter expertise for the design and deployment of the technologies and processes that comprise the Enterprise Credentialing Service, which will include a public key infrastructure (PKI) and a credential management system (CMS) that issues and manages PKI-based smartcard credentials. The Enterprise Credentialing Service will support approximately 17,000 users at 15 DOE NNSA sites and laboratories located across the continental United States.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Additively Manufactured Tamper Evident Container (TEC)

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a tamper evident container (TEC) to secure a broad variety of items from adversarial disclosure and espionage accidents. The new technology uses additive-manufacturing (AM) techniques for the concurrent creation of a container and arbitrarily complex-shaped three-dimensional tamper-sensitive features within its walls that authenticate the package. Analog and encrypted digital boards safely stored inside the TEC permanently record the complete security history of the protected items. Los Alamos is seeking commercial partners interested in further development and engineering prototype work.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Performance Characteristics of the BlueField-2 SmartNIC

High-performance computing (HPC) researchers have long envisioned scenarios where application workflows could be improved through the use of programmable processing elements embedded in the network fabric. Recently, vendors have introduced programmable Smart Network Interface Cards (SmartNICs) that enable computations to be offloaded to the edge of the network. There is great interest in both the HPC and high-performance data analytics (HPDA) communities in understanding the roles these devices may play in the data paths of upcoming systems. This paper focuses on characterizing both the networking and computing aspects of NVIDIA’s new BlueField-2 SmartNIC when used in a 100Gb/s Ethernet environment. For the networking evaluation we conducted multiple transfer experiments between processors located at the host, the SmartNIC, and a remote host. These tests illuminate how much effort is required to saturate the network and help estimate the processing headroom available on the SmartNIC during transfers. For the computing evaluation we used the stress-ng benchmark to compare the BlueField-2 to other servers and place realistic bounds on the types of offload operations that are appropriate for the hardware. Our findings from this work indicate that while the BlueField-2 provides a flexible means of processing data at the network’s edge, great care must be taken to not overwhelm the hardware. While the host can easily saturate the network link, the SmartNIC’s embedded processors may not have enough computing resources to sustain more than half the expected bandwidth when using kernel-space packet processing. From a computational perspective, encryption operations, memory operations under contention, and on-card IPC operations on the SmartNIC perform significantly better than the general-purpose servers used for comparisons in our experiments. Therefore, applications that mainly focus on these operations may be good candidates for offloading to the SmartNIC.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Recommendations for Data-in-Transit Requirements for Securing DER Communications

With the adoption of Distributed Energy Resource (DER) interoperability standards, common communication protocols are now being deployed between power system operators and DER devices. In 2018, a revision to the US interconnection and interoperability standard, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Std. 1547, required DER equipment to have an IEEE 2030.5, IEEE 1815, or SunSpec Modbus communication exchange interface. This change supports the future transition to secure connection and exchange of information between the DER equipment and implementing parties, such as grid operators. Adoption of standardized communication protocols and associated information models is a critical step toward interoperability between power system operators and DER, such as photovoltaic (PV) and energy storage systems. However, security requirements for these standardized communication protocols are not comprehensive, resulting in non-standard and vendor-specific implementation that may leave DER equipment susceptible to cyberattacks. This paper examines the data-in-flight security requirements for standardized DER communication protocols, per IEEE 1547-2018 revision, as it relates to device authentication, key management, and encryption. The state of the art for these security features is also explored, addressing their impact on communication and performance of low-cost single board computers, which are typical of DER devices. In conclusion, a recommendation is provided to adopt a common set of communication requirements, which are intended to achieve interoperability and implement data security over DER network pathways, while ensuring reliable, secure, and real-time information delivery.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG)

The Los Alamos Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) is a hardware-based, high-performance Random Number Generator capable of generating 200 Mbit/s or more of true random numbers. Like flipping a coin, it is very much random and essential for information security like encrypting data on the internet, checking email, or purchasing something from an online vendor. The device harvests entropy from fluctuations in an optical source that arise from quantum mechanical properties of light. Qrypt, Inc., a company launched in 2017, began making strategic investments and developing partnerships to advance cutting-edge quantum hardware solutions. One of those key investments was licensing QRNG from Los Alamos and subsequently collaborating with advanced quantum materials and technology researcher Dr. Raymond Newell to create high-quality random keys at scale.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Investigating Wireless Quantum Key Distribution for Advanced Reactor Communications

Remote operation of small modular reactor (SMR) facilities is an appealing prospect for streamlined operation costs, safety concerns, and user convenience. The ability to guarantee security of communication channels between offsite users and nuclear reactor facilities is critical to enabling remote operations, given the sensitive nature of reactor state data. This report proposes a configuration implementing quantum key distribution (QKD) and advanced encryption standard (AES) protocols to establish secure reactor data feeds. The model outlined, which utilizes the Argonne-developed SeQUeNCe software package and custom MATLAB code, determines free-space channel losses for microwave-band communications in a variety of weather conditions and simulates QKD via ground-satellite links. This report demonstrates the feasibility of repeatable, real-time key generation and distribution for this configuration towards enabling secure wireless reactor communications.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Modular Security Apparatus for Managing Distributed Cryptography for Command-and-Control Messages on Operational Technology Networks (Module-OT)

Module-OT is a bump- in- the- wire solution acting as a secure conduit for data between devices or systems across a network. Using the latest in open-source cryptographic libraries, all defined communications undergo authentication, authorization, and encryption. The core system can be easily installed through industry standard processes, and the use of popular open-source packages allows for it to be customizable customized by the developer community or deployed in unique embedded environments.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Additively Manufactured Tamper Evident Container (TEC)

The protection of sensitive data, proprietary information, and physical assets from adversarial disclosure is a high priority in today’s environment of government and industrial espionage. Furthermore, knowledge of the security history and monitoring for potential acquisition or disclosure of the protected assets from oppositional sources is equally important. In 2016, as part of an LANL Institute for Materials Science (IMS) rapid response research initiative, the investigators of this technology demonstration project developed the concept of an additively manufactured tamper resistant container that possessed tamper evident features. Tamper evident seals and detection technologies have a long history in protecting consumers from product tampering, recording the installation and activation of mechanical safety panels and fasteners on dangerous electro-mechanical systems, and serving as a warranty void indicator on expensive electronic equipment. Examples of such tamper evident seals range from “no-tech” versions, e.g., the paper seals under medicine caps, to “high-tech” seals that are radio frequency-active and include encryption capabilities used by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to monitor stored nuclear materials in support of safeguards missions. The tamper evident container (TEC) technology would have many uses.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

The Synchronic Web: Primer

The Synchronic Web is a network of information that is locked into a single global view of history. When clients notarize their data to the Synchronic Web, they gain the ability to irrefutably prove the following statement to the rest of the world: "I commit to this information—and only this information—at this moment in time." Much like encryption or digital signatures, this capability has the potential to bolster the integrity of public cyberspace at a foundational level and scale.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Survey of the Worldwide Supply Chain of Commodities Needed for a Quantum Technology Program

Quantum Information Science (QIS) is an emerging technology being pursued by fundamental science research groups worldwide, as well as commercial companies and government programs. There are a variety of QIS disciplines, including quantum computing, quantum sensing and quantum encryption. Some of the commodities needed for a robust quantum laboratory are particular to quantum phenomenon, but in general the equipment needed is similar to that needed for a typical high - technology lab (e.g. oscilloscopes, lasers, vacuum chambers, etc.). This study focuses on identifying commodities manufactured worldwide that would be needed for a robust quantum lab. The authors' own knowledge of needed equipment and primary vendors was used as a starting point, follow ed by extensive internet searching and utilization of buyer's guides to create a large spreadsheet of most of the components needed, the company offering the components, and country of manufacture. With this extensive spreadsheet, stakeholders can identify commodities that would be needed for a quantum lab oratory and potentially identify market choke points.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

CRADA Number NFE-20-08292 with Quantum Lock Technologies LLC (CRADA Final Report)

At Quantum Lock Technologies, our mission is to use future-proof hardware and software to bridge the gap between physical access control and cyber security. Physical security includes access to doors, lockboxes/containers, and machinery/robots. Connecting physical access control to the cloud allows for remote detection, fast ledger updates, and mobile or remote access. However, this also opens physical security up to the world of cyber-attacks. At Quantum Lock, we use quantum random number generation to generate completely random and unpredictable digital keys to be used by connected equipment in a facility. This quantum technology is then paired with end-to-end encryption and a one-time-key communication protocol to ensure the highest level of security. Through the Innovation Crossroads program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, we have developed benchtop prototypes of our technology, connected with utility boards as our first target customers, and prepared for our first pilot with customers (target end of summer 2022).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗