Cyber Physical Systems Security Education Workshop

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) provide functionality to critical infrastructure systems such as transportation, manufacturing, healthcare, communications, utilities and electrical power distribution. They provide richer functionality, efficiency, and autonomy than manually controlled or loosely coupled systems; however, they also create inherent vulnerability related to privacy, security, and reliability of the underlying components. Addressing the vulnerabilities in next generation CPS will require contributions from different disciplines. Only focused, multi-disciplinary approaches for developing unified foundations, principles, and technologies can achieve effective CPS security and reliability. The goal of this project is to create a forum for cyber-physical systems security experts, in order to tackle the multifaceted challenges in CPS security education. The first immediate outcome will be an NSF CPS Security Education Workshop to be held in collaboration with US and international experts, in order to address overlap fields, open problems, future experiments, and curriculum topics. The workshop will introduce US students and researchers to the problems faced and solutions offered by the EU research communities in CPS security education. The ultimate goal of the workshop is to create a path towards a new US CPS security curriculum. The goal of this project is to contribute to the scientific foundations and engineering principles needed to realize cyber-physical systems with capability and dependability far beyond what we are able to achieve today. Our focus is on educational and curriculum development aspects of CPS security. Cyber-physical systems involve interaction of cyber and physical components, whose dynamics have been modeled and taught separately but now need to be modeled and taught jointly. Only an engaged, multi-disciplinary CPS research and education community committed to developing unified foundations, principles, and technologies for CPS can achieve effective CPS security programs. The new curriculum will depend on in-depth and broad knowledge in systems aspects of CPS (modeling, optimization, operational research, and product integrity) as well as on security aspects (cryptography, risk management, secure network and communications protocols, behavioral and social aspects of security).