Matt Mickelson, Physics-Based Approaches for creating Cyber Resilient Systems

Our reliance on Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) is growing. As CPS infrastructure becomes exposed to the contested world through networks, CPS security becomes much more important. In a CPS, the cyber components manage the physical components. We propose that the overall goal for CPS resiliency is to have the physical systems behave properly regardless of fault and disruption. Our approach to CPS resiliency focuses on the physical components. Specifically, the inertia of the physical components provide a natural but limited resilience, and is capable of tolerating short-term disruption without affecting the health and safety of the CPS. This and the fact CPS have a large difference between physical and cyber time scales, enables a unique approach to CPS resiliency. This talk will present our approach of engineering the cyber components to be brittle against attack, which consequently forces cyber attacks and related disruptions to be short-lived and within tolerance of the physical system's inertia. About the speaker: Mr. Mickelson is a Principal in MITRE's Naval Program Division.  Matt has spent twenty years integrating emerging technologies, including cyber, AI, and autonomy, to improve some of the world's largest organizations.  He has given invited talks in academia and industry.  He was a keynote at last years IEEE ICTAI conference and recently an invited speaker for the National Cyber Security Alliance at the NASDAQ.  As a child, he convinced his parents they needed a color TV, and ever since, he has had a passion for identifying and developing disruptive technology.  Now, he actively coordinates advanced research programs in cybersecurity at the Office of Naval Research (ONR).