Trustworthy Systems

No safety without security, no security without trustworthy operating systems

Authors

Gernot Heiser

    School of Computer Science and Engineering
    UNSW,
    Sydney 2052, Australia

Published:

Invited talk at Qingdao International Academicians Forum

Abstract

Modern cars are controlled by embedded computers, driver control is only an input into those computers. With the move to autonomous driving, driver input is even less direct. This makes safety of such vehicles completely dependent on the correct operation of the controlling computer systems, and dramatically increases the safety risks posed by cyber attacks – security is a prerequisite for safety. Enforcing security of a computing system is the core responsibility of the operating system (OS). However in reality, most OSes have a poor track record of security, which is inherent in their design. I will present the seL4 microkernel, a truly trustworthy OS that has been mathematically proved to be able to enforce security, and is the right platform on which to build safety-critical systems.

BibTeX Entry

  @misc{Heiser_18:qdiap,
    author           = {Gernot Heiser},
    howpublished     = {Invited talk at Qingdao International Academicians Forum},
    month            = aug,
    title            = {No Safety without Security, no Security without Trustworthy Operating Systems},
    year             = {2018}
  }

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