SECURED AUTOMATED OR SEMI-AUTOMATED SYSTEMS

• US 20150067864A1
• Filed: 10/17/2014
• Published: 03/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mordecai Barkan
• Original Assignee: Mordecai Barkan
• Inventors: Barkan, Mordecai
• Granted Patent: US 9,342,695 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/24
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/554 involving event detection and direct action
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/561 Virus type analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/566 Dynamic detection, i.e. detection performed at run-time, e.g. emulation, suspicious activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/57 Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1408 by monitoring network traffic monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1416 Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1441 Countermeasures against malicious traffic countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/145 the attack involving the propagation of malware through the network, e.g. viruses, trojans or worms
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/128 Anti-malware arrangements, e.g. protection against SMS fraud or mobile malware
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]

Abstract

Secured automated or semi-automated systems are provided herein. In one embodiment, a sensor system includes a sensor, a legacy computing environment that is configured to communicate with the sensor and process sensor raw data output, and transmit the processed sensor output to a first network node over the network, and a trusted computing environment configured to receive raw sensor output directly from the sensor and transmit the raw sensor output to an additional network node or the first network node over the network.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a sensor;

a legacy computing environment that is configured to;

communicate with the sensor and process sensor raw data output; and

transmit the processed sensor output to a first network node over the network or via a trusted computing environment; and

the trusted computing environment configured to;

receive raw sensor output directly from the sensor; and

transmit the raw sensor output to an additional network node or the first network node over the network.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the trusted computing environment and the legacy environment are configured to clean the legacy environment when the legacy computing environment is infected with malware or is malfunctioning.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the trusted computing environment cleans the sensor by clearing memory of the sensor and loading software onto the memory.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the trusted computing environment is further configured to detect malware infection or a malfunction by comparing the raw sensor output with the processed sensor output of the legacy computing environment.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the trusted computing environment is further configured to detect malware infection or a malfunction by test input data to the legacy environment and evaluating legacy environment output resulting from the legacy environment program using the test input data.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the trusted computing environment is further configured to block legacy environment output of the legacy environment when the trusted computing environment determines that the legacy environment is infected with malware or is malfunctioning.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the first network node or the additional network node compares the raw sensor output to the processed data to detect a malfunction or malware in the legacy computing environment of the sensor system.

8. A system comprising:

an actuator;

a legacy computing environment coupled with the actuator, the legacy computing environment configured to;

process input commands into actuator commands, for the actuator; and

process the input commands and actuator state sensor raw data output to optimize actuator response;

and

a trusted computing environment coupled to the actuator, the trusted computing environment configured to;

receive raw actuator state sensor output directly from the actuator; and

transmit raw actuator state sensor output to a network node over a network.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the trusted computing environment is further configured to compare commands received from the network with actuator state sensor raw data output to determine when the legacy computing environment of the actuator system is infected with malware or is malfunctioning.

10. The system according to claim 8, wherein the trusted computing environment is configured to block legacy environment output to the actuator and/or to the network and feed actuator with preferred or test commands.

11. The system according to claim 8, wherein the trusted computing environment utilize circuitry to cleans the legacy computing environment by clearing memory of the legacy computing environment and loading software onto the memory.

12. The system according to claim 8, wherein the trusted computing environment is further configured to provide input to the actuator to cause a desired action.

13. The system according to claim 8, wherein the trusted computing environment receives processed commands from the network, the processed commands to be provided to the actuator.

14. A network node, comprising:

at least a trusted computing environment that carries out secured processing and that communicates with other trusted computing environments or system nodes over a network, the system nodes comprising any of controllers, servers, or manned stations for monitoring or maintenance of the networked system components including actuators and sensors.

15. The network node according to 14, further comprising a legacy computing environment that could communicate via the trusted environment of the node over the network with network nodes

16. The network node according to 15, wherein the trusted computing environment comprises a means for controlling communication of the legacy computing environment with other network nodes by blocking or redirecting communications.

17. The network node according to 16, wherein the trusted computing environment monitors software, programs, and applications of the legacy computing environment to detect, contain, block, and recover sensor and actuator systems or other infected legacy environments of the network nodes.

18. The network node according to 14, wherein the trusted computing environment securely evaluates data from sensor and/or actuator systems, both raw and processed, to determine malware infection or a malfunction.

19. The network node according to 14, wherein the trusted computing environment securely tests a sensor and/or actuator system with data fed into a sensor legacy computing environment.

20. The network node according to 14, wherein the trusted computing environment securely generates commands for actuators to test operation and detect malware or malfunctioning.

21. The network node according to 14, wherein the trusted computing environment securely processes sensor and/or actuator data.

22. The network node according to 14, wherein the trusted computing environment displays, in a secure manner, information for an operator, wherein the information comprises at least the raw sensor or actuator data. It may display also the processed sensor data.

23. The network node according to claim 14, wherein each trusted computing environment comprises an individual identifier string of characters, fixed or downloadable from another trusted environment.