Keith Gremban News

CU �鶹ӰԺ earns $5 million award for 5G cellular security research

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 16:54:45 +0000

CU �鶹ӰԺ earns $5 million award for 5G cellular security research Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/22/2023 - 10:54

Jeff Zehnder

A team of �鶹ӰԺ researchers is leading a major military-oriented project for 5G wireless security.

The National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator program has awarded CU �鶹ӰԺ $5 million for “GHOST: 5G Hidden Operations through Securing Traffic.” The goal of the work is to ensure American soldiers, businesses, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can use 5G cellular networks in foreign countries without untrusted or potentially hostile network operators being able to extract user information.

“This work is important for the United States because it inherently is about keeping our people safe,” said Eric Keller, a researcher on the project and an associate professor of electrical, computer, and energy engineering.

While 5G signals are encrypted, preventing malicious operators from listening in on conversations, it is still possible to glean a wealth of data from transmissions. Accessible information includes the users on-line activities and physical location, as well as individual and organizational patterns of usage, according to Keith Gremban, principal investigator on the project and research professor in aerospace engineering sciences.

“We're addressing a problem most people haven’t even thought about,” said Gremban. “These larger issues with patterns of usage – what you’re doing on your phone, when, and where – reveals so much.”

The interdisciplinary team has developed systems to disguise cellular communications by anonymizing user data and locations, hiding pattern of usage information, and even generating intentional false flag communications to make observers believe groups of users are in one location when they are actually in another.

“We’re changing the way a phone or set of phones appears to a network operator,” Gremban said. “This is obviously important for soldiers but it’s so much more than that. A lot of companies and nonprofits operate in regions of the world that are less than stable. There have been a rash of kidnappings of corporate executives in some countries. They’re very interested in preventing people from tracking their cell phones.”

The team received a $750,000 Phase 1 grant last year for initial development of the technology. The new $5 million award is to combine the different components they have created into a single suite and commercialize the product.

“These tools will function as a set of software applications that run on your phone and are hidden so even if the phone is captured, people would have a tough time telling that there's anything unusual going on,” Gremban said.

Keller said the tools could make a big difference in hostile places.

“I've had the great fortune of being able to advise students at CU �鶹ӰԺ who were in the military, and hearing stories of situations they've been in really hits home the impact that GHOST could help keep them safer,” Keller said.

The GHOST Team in front of the �鶹ӰԺ Flatirons on campus.

A major business partner on the project is Federated Wireless, which builds and manages 5G networks. In addition to developing technology for user anonymization, Federated is helping test prototypes using real-world cellular equipment and is central to the team’s commercialization goals.

“Our work is focused on enhancing security of users of untrusted networks and streamlining private network provisioning,” said Kurt Schaubach, chief technology officer at Federated Wireless. “We are excited to work with university researchers to further enhance the security of private 5G networks for federal, defense, and commercial use."

Gremban said the team’s success in developing the initial technology demonstrates real promise for a forthcoming product.

“I’ve been working in wireless communications for a number of years, so I’m very concerned about wireless security,” Gremban said. “I’ve long had ideas in this area and being able to bring together an incredible team of people who also had ideas and then to turn our research into practice is very exciting.”

In addition to Gremban, Keller, and Schaubach, the team includes CU �鶹ӰԺ professors Alexandra Siegel of political science; Tamara Lehman of electrical, computer, and energy engineering; and James Curry in applied math; as well as computer science research associate Stefan Tschimben. Sal D’Itri, vice president of public sector at Federated Wireless and James Neel, senior technologist at Federated Wireless are also key contributors to the project.

A team of �鶹ӰԺ researchers is leading a major military-oriented project for 5G wireless security. The National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator program has awarded CU �鶹ӰԺ $5 million for “GHOST: 5G Hidden Operations through Securing Traffic.” The goal of the work is...

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CU �鶹ӰԺ lands $750k research grant for 5G communications security

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 15:05:32 +0000

CU �鶹ӰԺ lands $750k research grant for 5G communications security Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/24/2022 - 09:05

Jeff Zehnder

Keith Gremban is leading a unique military-oriented research project to enable secure use of 5G networks that may be controlled by an adversary.

Gremban, an aerospace research professor at the �鶹ӰԺ, has secured a $749,000 phase one grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a project called GHOST: 5G Hidden Operations through Securing Traffic.

The goal of the work is to ensure American soldiers and infrastructure operators can use hostile 5G cellular networks in other countries without those countries being able to extract valuable operational information.

“When the military goes into a country, we use the roads and infrastructure that are already there to move our troops. We don’t build our own, so similarly we should also use the communications networks that already exist there,” Gremban said. “But there are security issues. We want to protect our soldiers and devices.”

The research will follow two tracks. The first will explore ways to disguise our communications by generating continuous background noise on cellular networks. The second is to generate intentional false flag communications to confuse enemies. It is an effort with clear historical parallels.

“In WWII when we were preparing for D-Day, the allies had a whole successful mis-information campaign to make the Nazis think we’d be invading at Pas de Calais instead of Normandy,” Gremban said. “We want to do modeling here for how we can generate fake activity just like they did in WWII using modern communications networks.”

The structure of the grant means the research will proceed quickly. The project is part of the NSF Convergence Accelerator’s Securely Operating Through 5G Infrastructure program, where 16 phase one awardees, including CU �鶹ӰԺ, have proposed various 5G communications projects will have just nine months to turn their initial application into a prototype.

“It is essentially treating NSF as a venture capital firm,” Gremban said. “They pair us with coaches who have business and tech transition experience and at the end of the nine months, we have to make a big idea pitch to go for phase two, which is for $5 million over two years.”

To boost the odds of success, Gremban has assembled a team of multidisciplinary researchers from private industry and the university, including Tamara Lehman – an assistant professor of electrical engineering whose research focuses on computer security from the hardware perspective.

“This work is important for our country,” Lehman said. “Our success will enable use of potentially malicious 5G networks without having to worry about the privacy and security of sensitive information.”

Lehman said she is particularly excited at the laboratory experiments the team plans to conduct with partner Federated Wireless, which builds and manages 5G networks and will allow them to test prototypes using real-world cellular equipment.

“I don’t normally get to see my ideas in action, but here we’re going to be investigating multiple trusted execution environments to perform these custom networking functions for obfuscation of network traffic. It’s exciting,” Lehman said.

Gremban believes the research has real promise, and even if they are not successful in receiving round two funding other agencies may be interested in advancing the work further.

“We’ve got a strong team, and this is a very compelling concept,” Gremban said. “There is a whole category of intelligence called traffic analysis that is about communications technology. We’re doing important work.”

In addition to Gremban and Lehman, partners on the grant at CU �鶹ӰԺ include professors Alexandra Siegel of political science, Eric Keller of electrical and computer engineering, and James Curry in applied math, as well as computer science research associate Stefan Tschimben. Sal D’Itri, vice president of public sector at Federated Wireless and James Neel, senior technologist at Federated Wireless are also involved from the industry side.

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Future Insights Seminar: 5G and the Frontier of Spectrum Sharing - How is it being implemented and what is its future? - Oct. 20

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 06:00:00 +0000

Future Insights Seminar: 5G and the Frontier of Spectrum Sharing - How is it being implemented and what is its future? - Oct. 20 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/13/2021 - 00:00

Keith Gremban
Research Professor, CU �鶹ӰԺ
Mark Sirangelo
Entrepreneur-in-Residence, CU �鶹ӰԺ
Wednesday, Oct. 20 | 4:30 P.M. | Zoom Webinar

Join Mark Sirangelo as he welcomes Dr. Keith Gremban, one of the country’s leading experts in 5G and spectrum sharing, for a unique discussion and Q&A on the leading developments in 5G. Dr. Gremban has been working as a Program Manager on the DoD 5G Initiative, leading Tranche 1, which is deploying full-scale 5G testbeds at four military bases within the United States. Keith will discuss his views on 5G including:

What is the reality about 5G and its roll-out in the United States?
How does the DoD 5G Initiative relate to the roll-out of 5G?
Is 5G really the major transformation that we hear about?
How will all the changes in spectrum and communications technology impact our lives for years to come?
What research, science & entrepreneurial opportunities will derive from the adoption of 5G?
Where does spectrum sharing fit into the future of telecommunications?
What are some of the research goals that the CU �鶹ӰԺ team should pursue as a university partner in the new $25M NSF SpectrumX Innovation Center?

Bios: Dr. Keith Gremban is the Co-Director of the Spectrum Policy Initiative at the Silicon Flatirons Center, and also a Research Professor in Aerospace at CU �鶹ӰԺ. Keith has spent over 30 years in the defense industry as a software architect and systems engineer, with R&D experience in robotics, command-and-control systems, tactical communications, and spectrum science. In 2011, Keith joined the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as a Program Manager in the Strategic Technologies Office, where he was responsible for a portfolio of programs in wireless communications and electronic warfare. In 2015, Keith became the Director of the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) in �鶹ӰԺ, which is the research and engineering laboratory of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Keith received his PhD and MS in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, and an MS in Applied Mathematics and BS in Mathematics from Michigan State University.

Mark N. Sirangelo created and hosts the CU Future Insight Seminar Series as CU’s Entrepreneur-Scholar in Residence. He is the recent Chairman of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Board and the DoD’s Space Advisory Committee. Previously he was Special Assistant to the NASA Administrator helping to develop NASA’s return to the Moon. Mark was the founding executive and head of Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Space Systems which has participated in over 300 space & aerospace missions to date. He has served as the Chief Innovation Officer of Colorado and is the State’s appointee to the Colorado Energy Research Collaboratory.

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