This federal Project Grant award, totaling $1,197,143.00, was issued by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) program (CFDA 47.070). The purpose of the grant is to integrate security algorithms into prominent data management libraries, particularly the HDF5 library, to address vulnerabilities and improve the trustworthiness, integrity, and resilience of self-describing data formats and libraries used across scientific and engineering domains.
The key products and services to be delivered under this 3-year grant include: (1) assessing and fixing file format vulnerabilities, (2) protecting data access libraries, (3) exploring security solutions for metadata and data, and (4) constructing a comprehensive security framework called S2-D2. The HDF Group has been awarded a sub-grant to contribute to these efforts by producing a threat matrix, implementing library hardening activities, and engineering data security solutions for HDF5. This work will help secure critical cyberinfrastructure for applications in fields such as climate, finance, and healthcare that rely on self-describing data formats.