Cybersecurity R&D for Science and Energy at the Berkeley Lab

Berkeley Lab Computing Sciences Research is an active participant numerous projects areas of computer security. Its mission-driven emphasis has historically focused on security for science, including high-performance computing and high-throughput networking environments, and security of cyber-physical systems, notably in the power grid. These projects include collaborations with numerous other academic, National Lab, and industry partners. R&D sponsors have included the Department of Energy (DOE) ASCR and CEDS R&D programs, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the National Science Foundation (NSF) SaTC program and OAC office, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, and the National Security Agency, among others.

LBNL has had a leadership role in security in scientific computing environments for many years, including the development of the Zeek (Bro) Network Security Monitor, as well as leading several DOE-sponsored activities related to defining a cybersecurity research program within the DOE. More recently, LBNL led the coordination of the “Cyber R&D” Enterprise Cyber Capability (ECC) of the DOE-wide Integrated Joint Cybersecurity Coordination Center (iJC3) — a sponsored R&D program involving ten DOE National Laboratories as performers. LBNL is a co-lead of Trusted CI, the NSF Cybersecurity Center of Excellence.

Recent highlights of LBNL Computing Sciences’ cybersecurity R&D activities include:

Development of secure computation architectures optimized for scientific computing to ensure trustworthiness of scientific data from the edge to the HPC center.
Development and application of differential privacy to power grid and vehicle mobility data and applications.
Development of techniques detecting misuse of high-performance computing resources using both on-system and off-system side channels.
Development of a research roadmap for co-designing high-performance computing systems with security built in.
Development of the Medical Science DMZ design pattern as a method that allows data flows at scale while simultaneously addressing the HIPAA Security Rule and related regulations governing biomedical data and appropriately managing risk.
Development of security monitoring systems for cyber-physical systems that integrate insights about the physical limitations of those systems into network security monitoring and that leverage high-resolution physical sensors combined with SCADA to identify cyberattacks on power grid distribution systems.