2023_programme: Location-Based Global Symmetric Key Management

• Session: 19. Underwater Communications and Networking
  Organiser(s): Charalampos Tsimenidis, Paul Mitchell and Konstantinos Pelekanakis
• Lecture: Location-Based Global Symmetric Key Management [invited]
  Paper ID: 1852
  Author(s): Teglasy Balint, Boyd Colin, Potter John, Katsikas Sokratis
  Presenter: Teglasy Balint
  Abstract: In a world with an explosive interest in the security of critical infrastructure underwater, the threat arising from falsely flagged assets can no longer be ignored. National or international maritime authorities are used to handle requests for licenses for all kinds of marine activities. These licenses constitute authorizations limited in time and space, but there is no technical security service to automatically check for the authorization of a wide range of marine assets. Unmanned assets, in particular, can only be checked automatically if they don't have the connectivity to put a human in the loop. Therefore, authentication is required also for autonomous assets. Increasing civilian presence underwater from many domains of the economy requires interoperability. We have noted secure AIS solutions suitable for more or less constantly internet-connected assets such as ships with satellite connections. The additional constraints posed by underwater autonomous assets, namely less power and connectivity, can be mitigated by challenges and responses using symmetric cryptography. We propose a security service that allows the automatized check of asset authorization status based on symmetric keys assigned according to license authorization. Key generation can occur at a central authority according to a license's time and space limitations, i.e. timestamped and geocoded, while key distribution would ensue by more conventional means (IP/TLS). Our solution harnesses the standardized encoding of geocells in the Open Location Code (OLC) system. While we developed and described our solution for offshore underwater use, aerial and terrestrial environments could also make use of it if they are similarly bandwidth constrained or want to rely on quantum-resistant and computationally economic symmetric methods.
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• Corresponding author: Mr Balint Teglasy
  Affiliation: NTNU
  Country: Norway
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