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SERC TALKS: “Cyber Resilience: Technical Concept or Vague Desiderata?”

This is the second SERC Talk of the Spring 2022 series on “Cyber Resilience”. This series is curated and moderated by Dr. Peter Beling, SERC Research Council Member, Professor and Associate Director, Intelligent Systems Lab, Hume Center for National Security and Technology, Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech.

View the video in brief (2.22).
The full playback can be viewed below.
Speaker: Dr. Alexander Kott, Chief Scientist, U.S. Army Research Laboratory; Army Senior Research Scientist (ST) for Cyber Resilience, U.S. Army | SE*******@st*****.edu;be****@vt.edu?subject=SERC Talks w/ Alexander Kott – April 6″>CONTACT
Abstract
I will begin by lamenting the fact that cyber resilience remains a subject of much confusion and vagueness. It is time for a firmer, better defined intellectual framework for cyber resilience as a technical concept. I will outline two key reasons for pursuing cyber resilience, a military one and an economic one. Along the way, I will caution against a common mistake of conflating cyber security and cyber resilience. They are not the same. Then I will sketch the differences – as well as relative advantages and disadvantages – of two classes cyber resilience: resilience by design and resilience by intervention. I will discuss why autonomy is a key to resilience by design (and to some extent to any cyber resilience) and key features of intelligent autonomous agents for cyber defense and resilience. Regardless the means of achieving resilience, we will not make much progress without being able to measure resilience. We cannot improve what we cannot measure. I will discuss directions towards measuring cyber resilience, and bemoan yet another harmful conflation, that of assessing and measuring.
Biography
Dr. Alexander Kott serves as the Chief Scientist of the Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory. In this role he provides leadership in development of ARL technical strategy, maintaining technical quality of ARL research, and representing ARL to external technical community. Dr. Kott is also the Army Senior Research Scientist (ST) for Cyber Resilience

Between 2009 and 2016, he was the Chief, Network Science Division, Computational and Information Sciences Directorate, ARL, responsible for a diverse portfolio of fundamental research and applied development in network science and science for cyber defense.

In particular, he played a key role in initiating the Network Science Collaborative Technology Alliance, among the world-largest efforts to study interactions between networks of different types; and in Cyber Security Collaborative Research Alliance, a unique program of creating basic science of cyber warfare.

In 2013, Dr. Kott served as the Acting Associate Director for Science and Technology of the ARL's Computational and Information Sciences Directorate; in 2015 he also served as the Acting Director of the Computational and Information Sciences Directorate.

Beginning his Government career, between 2003 and 2008, Dr. Kott served as a Defense Advanced Research Programs Agency (DARPA) Program Manager responsible for a number of large-scale advanced technology research programs. Technologies developed in programs under his management ranged from adversarial reasoning in mission command, to command and control of robotic forces.

His earlier positions included Director of R&D at Carnegie Group, Pittsburgh, PA; and Information Technology Research Department Manager at AlliedSignal, Inc., Morristown, NJ. There, his work focused on novel information technology approaches, such as Artificial Intelligence, to complex problems in engineering design, planning and control, and mission command.

Dr. Kott received the Secretary of Defense Exceptional Public Service Award and accompanying Exceptional Public Service Medal.

He earned his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA in 1989, where his research proposed AI approaches to innovative design of complex systems.

He published over 100 technical papers and served as the initiator, co-author and primary editor of over ten books, including Advanced Technology Concepts for Command and Control, 2004; Information Warfare and Organizational Decision Process, 2006; Adversarial Reasoning: Computational Approaches to Reading the Opponent's Mind, 2006; The Battle of Cognition: the Future Information-Rich Warfare and the Mind of the Commander, 2007; Estimating Impact: A Handbook of Computational Methods and Models for Anticipating Economic, Social, Political and Security Effects in International Interventions, 2010; Cyber Defense and Situational Awareness, 2015; Cyber Security of SCADA and other Industrial Control Systems, 2016; and Cyber Resilience, 2018.
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Moderator: Dr. Peter Beling, SERC Research Council Member; Professor and Associate Director, Intelligent Systems Lab, Hume Center for National Security and Technology, Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech  |  SE*******@st*****.edu?subject=SERC Talks”>CONTACT

More information on all SERC Talks can be found here. Thank you!

Purdue University 23rd Annual CERIAS Security Symposium, (Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security)

Join us for the 23rd Annual CERIAS Security Symposium at Purdue University as industry, government, and academic researchers and practitioners examine where we’ve been, where we’re at, and what may be on the horizon. This should be of particular interest to those working in security, illustrating some of what should be addressed and what emerging technologies promise to change the paradigm.

Keynote speakers this year will include:

  • Brandon Wales, Exec. Director of DHS CISA
  • Dr. David McGrew, Cisco Fellow
  • Richard A. Clarke, author and former NSC senior advisor for cyber and counterterrorism

Topical Panel Discussions:

  • Trusted and Fair AI
  • Securing Digital Healthcare
  • Secure Software Supply-chain and Bill of Materials

Technical talks and project demos for a variety of cyber and cyber-physical security projects.
Student Poster Session highlighting a number of student projects, capstones and graduate research.

Purdue’s CERIAS is the world’s oldest, largest, and preeminent interdisciplinary academic education and research institute for cyber and cyber-physical systems. CERIAS personnel focus on security, resiliency, privacy, autonomy, trusted electronics, and explainable AI. In 2022 CERIAS celebrates the 30-year legacy of COAST, Purdue’s first cybersecurity laboratory, and the foundation upon which CERIAS was built.

Conference on Systems Engineering Research | CSER 2022

The Conference on Systems Engineering Research 2022 (CSER 2022) is being hosted by Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Co‐founded by the University of Southern California and Stevens Institute of Technology in 2003, CSER has become the preeminent event for researchers in systems engineering across the globe.

The ​19th ​ ​Conference ​on ​Systems ​Engineering ​Research ​(CSER) ​focuses ​on ​theoretical ​work ​in ​systems ​engineering ​and ​its ​translation ​to ​practical ​application. ​The ​conference ​will ​include ​research ​papers, ​plenary ​speakers, ​panels, ​and ​interactive ​sessions ​where ​attendees ​can ​engage ​in ​discussions ​and ​idea ​generation.

Since ​its ​inception, ​CSER ​has ​become ​the ​primary ​conference ​for ​disseminating ​systems ​engineering ​research ​and ​germinating ​new ​research ​ideas.

Call For Submissions:

  • December 6, 2021 – Full papers due
  • January 10, 2021 – Notifications to authors
  • February 7, 2022 – Final papers submitted
  • March 24, 2022 – SEANET and Tutorials
  • March 25-26, 2022 – Conference at NTNU

For any questions regarding the event, please contact Conference Management: cs******@km*******.net

Conference Manager: Dr. Cecilia Haskins, ESEP, NTNU/USN

INCOSE Systems Engineering and Architecting Doctoral Student Network (SEANET) 2022 Workshop

INCOSE seeks to foster and accelerate doctoral research in the field of systems engineering by connecting student researchers through a network. The purpose of SEANET is to advance systems engineering research by providing a collegial support network, research resources, and contacts that will enable the completion of doctoral dissertations related to systems engineering. The INCOSE SEANET invites current and soon-to-be doctoral students to participate in this one-day workshop. Students will also have the option to exhibit a research poster.

The Systems Engineering & Architecting Research Network (SEANET) is an INCOSE sponsored organizational network of doctoral students working in the field of systems engineering and architecture. SEANET is aimed at fostering doctoral level research in systems engineering and contributing to the evolving intellectual agenda for systems engineering research. This year’s SEANET is being held virtually on March 24, 2022.

Organizers:

SERC TALKS: “How Can We Model Cyber Attacks and Systems to Characterize Resilience of Critical Infrastructure Systems?”

This is the opening SERC Talk of the Spring 2022 series on “Cyber Resilience”. These talks are curated and moderated by Dr. Peter Beling, SERC Research Council Member, Professor and Associate Director, Intelligent Systems Lab, Hume Center for National Security and Technology, Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech.

View the video in brief (3.02).
The full playback can be viewed below.

Speaker: Dr. Eric Vugrin, Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, Cyber Resilience Research and Development, Sandia National Laboratories  | be****@vt.edu;SE*******@st*****.edu?subject=SERC Talks w/ Eric Vugrin – February 23″>CONTACT

Abstract
Recent high profile cyber attacks on critical infrastructures have raised awareness about the severe and widespread impacts that these attacks can have on everyday life. This awareness has increased the demand for cyber resilient critical infrastructure and for proof that proposed mitigations actually increase resilience. In this presentation, we will discuss an approach to cyber modeling and experimentation that we are using at Sandia National Laboratories to analyze the resilience of industrial control systems. The approach leverages virtual cyber testbeds, threat emulation, and resilience metrics to provide quantitative resilience evaluations. Demonstration of the platform and analysis process are illustrated through a use case involving the control system for a pressurized water reactor.

Funding statement: Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.
Biography
Dr. Eric Vugrin is a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in the Cyber Resilience Research and Development Department at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His research spans nearly two decades and focuses on the development of analytical tools and methods for modeling, analyzing, and designing resilience in complex systems. Cyber and space systems are his current primary applications of interest, and he has previously worked on supply chains, public health systems, power systems, transportation networks, and other critical infrastructures. His work has provided support and guidance to research, operations, and policy groups at the US Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, Energy, and other agencies. Recognition for his research includes the US Department of Energy Secretary’s Appreciation Award and an R&D 100 Award, recognizing the Canary event-detection software as one of the 100 most technologically significant products of 2010. Previous to his work on critical infrastructures, Dr. Vugrin performed risk analyses as Sandia’s technical lead for total systems performance assessment at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the world’s only certified, deep-underground repository for nuclear waste.

Dr. Vugrin co-authored the book Critical Infrastructure System Security and Resiliency; more than 50 book chapters, journal articles, and conference papers; and more than 80 technical reports. He earned his PhD in mathematics from Virginia Tech.
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Moderator: Dr. Peter Beling, Professor and Associate Director, Intelligent Systems Lab, Hume Center for National Security and Technology, Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech  |  SE*******@st*****.edu?subject=SERC Talks”>CONTACT

More information on all SERC Talks can be found here. Thank you!

2022 DAU Acquisition Update: Embracing the Digital Environment

For questions concerning the event, send an email to: HS********************@da*.edu.

DAU will host its virtual annual Acquisition Update on Feb. 23-24, 2022. Our theme “Embracing the Digital Environment” is timely for this year’s Update as major changes have been enacted within the Department of Defense. Attendees will hear from senior government and industry leaders on such topics as reimagining how we develop our workforce, changing the way DoD does business, system security engineering, essential modernization activities and implications, cybersecurity resilience, Workforce Development initiatives, sustainment planning in technology development, increasing industrial competitiveness, software acquisition, and more. The DAU President is scheduled to kick off the event, followed by a keynote address by the Principal Military Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology. The second day will begin with an address by the Joint Program Executive Officer for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense followed by a keynote address by the Director of Hypersonics, Directed Energy, Space and Rapid Acquisition. Throughout both days there will be numerous panels and presentations which address topics central to the success of Defense Acquisition.

Attendees will be eligible to earn Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) for participation (1 CLP per session hour attended). The post event survey must be completed to receive a participation certificate with those CLPs. Survey information and link will be provided closer to the event.

Recordings, slides, and Q&A results will be posted on the DAU event page, post event, as they become available.

EVENT SCHEDULE
TOPIC DESCRIPTIONS

2021 AI4SE & SE4AI Workshop Report Details the Systems of Interest for Research and Collaboration

The U.S. Army DEVCOM Armaments Center (AC) Systems Engineering Directorate (SED) and the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC), a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) for the Department of Defense (DoD) jointly sponsored the second Artificial Intelligence for Systems Engineering/Systems Engineering for Artificial Intelligence (AI4SE/SE4AI) workshop on October 20-21, 2021. The two-day virtual event gathered participants from Government, Academia and Industry to learn from leaders using AI in this space, share ideas and further explore outcomes that resulted from the inaugural AI4SE/SE4AI meeting held in October 2020.

The SERC Roadmap is a high-level, aspirational research vision linked to the goals of the DoD Digital Engineering (DE) Strategy and focused on how to prepare future SE processes for a world where humans and machines co-adapt and team to evolve complex missions in response to dynamic operational conditions. The objective of the workshop was to discuss and define Systems Engineering (SE) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) challenges, areas of exploration and methodologies to use, and ways to collaborate and research in the upcoming years.

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WORKSHOP CONTENT

In their work on AI and the future of systems engineering, SERC researchers Tom McDermott, Mark Blackburn and Peter Beling, take the position that “It is imperative that the SE community deeply understand emerging AI and ML technologies and applications, incorporate them into methods and tools, and ensure that appropriate SE approaches are used to make AI systems ethical, reliable, safe, and secure.”

As humans interact and team up with machines capable of learning everything from data sets to human, machine, and system behaviors, it is critical to be able to model the interaction, adaptation and co-evolution of the AI system with other relevant systems in the context of changing and unpredictable conditions. The workshop’s focus on the emergent trends in AI and machine learning through the lens of systems engineering is especially relevant to government, industry partners, and researchers who are invested in the applications of AI to produce better outcomes. Understanding the role of AI on the digital transformation of systems engineering, and the role of systems engineering in understanding AI as a system is key.

As noted in the workshop report, “Unprecedented technology generates uncertainty. Any loss of confidence and trust in new technologies and systems will set back progress. Safety is a primary concern, but there is a need to be practical about the level of confidence achievable and attention needs to be paid to the risks posed by not moving forward technologically and falling behind adversaries.”

In a February 2021 article entitled Building trust in human-machine teams by Margarita Konaev and Husanjot Chahal writing for the Brookings Institute the authors assert, “A holistic understanding of trust—one that pays attention to the human, the machine, and the interactions and interdependencies between them—can help the U.S. military move forward with its vision of using intelligent machines as trusted partners to human operators, advancing the Department of Defense’s strategy for AI as a whole.”  They go on to state that  “…trust can seem like an abstract, subjective concept that is hard to define and even harder to measure. Defense researchers and developers, therefore, focus less on studying trust directly and more on systems engineering approaches that ‘build trust into the system’ by making AI systems more transparent, explainable, and reliable.”

A unifying theme for the 2021 workshop was the increasing need for organizations and systems to be agile to keep up with the dynamic nature of AI toward the ultimate goal of delivering the most relevant and effective tools to the soldier in the field. Essential areas for focus emerged, notably: the importance of data—its acquisition, analysis and maintenance; the importance of the reliability of new systems to build user confidence and maintain global competitive advantage; and the need to update business processes, including workforce development and retention.

The jointly sponsored event was an opportunity for an in-depth exchange among and contributions by representatives of Government, Academia and Industry toward continued refinement and rich application of artificial intelligence and machine learning.