Safety- and security-critical systems

When talking about embedded software, both safety and security are important. ‘Safety’ concerns a system’s ability to function without causing harm to objects or persons and function with a sufficient level of reliability, and ‘security’ concerns a system’s ability to protect against e.g. hackers.

At CISS, we perform research within both areas. Concerning safety – reliability – we work on locating faults and flaws – occurred or potential – and on setting up and testing models in order to document whether the systems live up to the requirements placed upon them. In addition, we work on ‘temporal validation’ – e.g. how long it takes from the moment when a system receives information till it reacts. The focus of our work within safety-critical systems is naturally placed upon predicting and thus preventing potential faults and upon developing systems that continue to work even if faults do occur.

Concerning security – data security – we work mainly with devices connected to the internet. We work on creating a balance between a high level of security and accessibility for the users – so that the people working with the devices and programmes are still able to work with no obstructions, while the system keeps out unwelcome visitors. In addition, we work on developing back-up operating systems that will make it easy to re-install an operating system on e.g. a server in case of accidents, bringing the company in question back online and on full performance in no time.

Case stories:

1) Safety - SpaceCom A/S

CISS has collaborated with the company SpaceCom, which develops and manufactures tracking antennae for for instance ships. The collaboration concerned the development of an antennae, in which intelligent software could take over a function that used to be performed by a mechanical movement, which would make the antenna smaller and cheaper.

Read more about the collaboration here.

2) Security - The Umbrella Project

Three computer science students associated with CISS have been working on a project in collaboration with the Danish phone company TDC. The purpose of the project was to develop a system capable of protecting mobile phones against hackers.

Read more about the collaboration here.