Khaled Serag, Vulnerability Identification and Defense Construction in Cyber-Physical Systems

With the ever-accelerating computerization process of once strictly mechanical systems, information security threats are only expected to increase. This rapidly unfolding process calls into question whether we could promptly cope with the security threats it entails. Unfortunately, a commonly observed trend is for the computerization process to steadily advance while paying little attention to the security aspect until a security vulnerability is discovered, often by an external actor. Only then, a quest for a suitable security measure begins. In sum, security is considered only in reaction to manifest breaches. This comes at a high price, as the fix is not often found speedily after the breach. In this talk, I will explain how to take a proactive vulnerability identification and defense construction approach to better secure cyber-physical systems. I will discuss two main themes of my research: 1) vulnerability identification and 2) defense construction with a focus on the context of Controller Area Network (CAN) systems. About the speaker: Dr. Khaled Serag is a post-doctoral research assistant at Purdue University. He finished his Ph.D. at Purdue in August 2023. His broad research area is Information Security. Since he joined Purdue, he has been working closely with Dr. Dongyan Xu and Dr. Z. Berkay Celik on several Automotive and ICS Security projects. He also has industrial research experience through working with Boeing as a Cyber Security Researcher, where he was involved in several security research projects pertaining to avionic networks, mesh networks, IoT devices, and other areas.