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SERC TALKS: “Secure Cyber Resilient Engineering for the Era of Competition”

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This is the final 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.

Speaker: Ms. Melinda K. Reed, Director, Systems Security, Science and Technology Program Protection (STPP) Office in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E))| CONTACT

Abstract
Our Nation faces threats in this era of competition that outpace policies and practices for engineering weapon systems; it requires a knowledgeable science and technology (S&T) and systems security engineering workforce to provide dependably safe, secure, and resilient systems to operations at speed and scale. Department of Defense (DoD) Instruction 5000.83, “Technology and Program Protection to Maintain Technological Advantage,” establishes the overarching technology protection policy for both DoD-sponsored research and technology activities across the research and Adaptive Acquisition System ecosystem.
This presentation provides an overview of the ongoing policy, guidance, and standards initiatives in the Systems Security Directorate in the Chief Technology Officer for S&T Office to address the challenges presented by adversarial threats to provide the Department with safe, secure, and resilient weapons systems. This presentation will discuss the need for the secure cyber resilient engineering (SCRE) practice, the scope of the application of the SCRE practice, and the need to have a knowledgeable S&T and systems security engineering workforce to enable rapid delivery of warfighter capability. Partnerships with academia, industry and government stakeholders are critical in defending the Nation and maintaining our technological advantages in this era of competition.
Biography
Ms. Melinda K. Reed is the Director for Systems Security in the Science and Technology Program Protection (STPP) Office in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)). She brings a wealth of engineering and technical experience to her role, serving as the principal OUSD(R&E) executive for policy, guidance, education, and methods to ensure defense systems perform free of known vulnerabilities and exploitation. Her responsibilities include overseeing Department of Defense initiatives in secure cyber resilient engineering; program protection; hardware, software, and system assurance; supply chain risk management; design for exportability; anti-tamper; and controlled technical information. Ms. Reed is a recipient of the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology & Logistics) Award for Excellence and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisition) Acquisition Excellence Award. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Oregon State University.
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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  |  CONTACT

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

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.

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Speaker: Dr. Alexander Kott, Chief Scientist, U.S. Army Research Laboratory; Army Senior Research Scientist (ST) for Cyber Resilience, U.S. Army | 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  |  CONTACT

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

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  | 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  |  CONTACT

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