VU SoS Lablet Quarterly Executive Summary - January 2019

A. Fundamental Research

The Science of Security for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) Lablet focuses on (1) Foundations of CPS Resilience, (2) Analytics for CPS Cybersecurity and (3) Development of a Multi-model Testbed for Simulation–based Evaluation of Resilience.

• We consider the problem of improving structural robustness of networks without adding extra links. The main idea is to ensure that a small subset of nodes, referred to as “trusted” nodes, remains intact and functions correctly at all times. We extend two fundamental metrics of structural robustness with the notion of trusted nodes, network connectivity, and r-robustness, and then show that by controlling the number and location of trusted nodes, any desired connectivity and robustness can be achieved without adding extra links.
• We continued work as planned on the data extraction from the key policy documents that are related to smart grid cybersecurity. We developed a view of the overall policy ecosystem within which we can situate the policy texts that to use as "raw data". We are working on the construction of design structure matrices as structured model of the overall application system. We are also developing tools for customized analysis to meet the need of different constituencies.
• The development of the multi-model simulation testbed is being extended (1) to perform simulation experiments in the railway transportation domain and (2) to incorporated machine learning components in the transportation and powergrid domains. Models in the CPS domains are integrated with cyber-attacks that include adversarial machine learning attacks for performing security and resilience studies.

B. Community Engagement(s)

• Our research was presented in two conferences/workshops: ICII 2018 and ASHES 2018 (workshop in conjuction with CCS).
• Interactions with the Military on dilemmas of rapid acquisition and cyber-specific challenges and participation in a panel of the future of cybersecurity.

C. Educational Advances

Finalize a paper describing RoboScape and the hands-on curriculum which aims at making key ideas in CPS security accessible to high school students using a collaborative network robotics environment.