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AI-Driven Threat Detection and Resilience in Cyber–Physical Systems

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Computing and Artificial Intelligence".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 March 2026 | Viewed by 980

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Automatic Control, Electronics and Computer Science, Department of Distributed Systems and Informatic Devices, Silesian University of Technology, Akademicka 16, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Interests: long-range dependence (LRD); self-similarity; traffic sources; Hurst parameter; Markov models; neural networks; convolutional neural networks; Hurst exponent; internet traffic; fractional Gaussian noise; water consumption; IoT; cloud computing; smart home; interactive shower panel; Industry 4.0; active queue management; diffusion approximation; fractional controller PIγ; internet; TCP/IP and UDP; congestion control; dropping packets; PIα controller; adaptive AQM; self similarity; PID; reinforcement learning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Distributed Systems and Informatic Devices, Faculty of Automatic Control, Electronics and Computer Science, Silesian University of Technology, Akademicka 16, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Interests: neural networks; convolutional neural networks; Hurst exponent; self-similarity; internet traffic; fractional Gaussian noise; SDN switch; quality of service (QoS); diffusion approximation; water consumption; IoT; cloud computing; smart home; interactive shower panel; Industry 4.0; active queue management; fractional controller PIγ; internet; TCP/IP and UDP; congestion control; dropping packets
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Microelectronics, Silesian University of Technology, Akademicka 16, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Interests: automation; electronics; electrical; engineering and space technologies (AEEEST): 100% N
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Automatic Control, Electronics and Computer Science, Silesian University of Technology, Akademicka 16, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Interests: eddy current testing; electromagnetism; impedance analysis; analytical modeling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cyber–Physical Systems (CPSs) are becoming increasingly intelligent and complex due to the integration of artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and distributed computing architectures. On the one hand, this increases their efficiency and functionality, but on the other hand, it exposes them to new, sophisticated, and difficult-to-detect security threats. Modern attacks on CPSs often use targeted, long-term methods (advanced persistent threats), machine learning techniques, or vulnerabilities at the interface of the physical and digital worlds.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collate the latest research and reviews on AI-based methods (including machine learning/deep learning) in the context of

  • Anomaly detection;
  • Risk assessment;
  • Resilience engineering;
  • Predictive security;
  • Self-organizing and adaptive defense mechanisms.

We invite the submission of original and review papers focused on the following areas:

  • Intelligent threat detection mechanisms in CPSs and IoT;
  • Using AI/ML/DL to protect industrial infrastructure and SCADA;
  • Cyber resilience and autonomous responses to threats;
  • CPS security in the automotive, energy, medicine, and robotics domains;
  • Edge AI and security in distributed architectures;
  • Formal methods and hybrid models for secure CPS design;
  • Explainable AI in the context of critical systems security;
  • Integration of cybersecurity and functional security (cyber–physical safety–security co-design).

Our goal is to create a platform for interdisciplinary knowledge exchange, connecting experts in the fields of security, artificial intelligence, automation, systems engineering, and industrial informatics.

Dr. Jakub Szyguła
Dr. Dariusz Marek
Dr. Krzysztof Bernacki
Dr. Grzegorz Tytko
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • cyber–physical systems (CPSs)
  • artificial intelligence (AI)
  • Internet of Things (IoT)
  • machine learning/deep learning
  • attack detection and prevention
  • real-time monitoring

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 1476 KB  
Article
An Explainable Method for Automatic Extraction of Natural Language Access Control Policy Key Components
by Luca Petrillo, Fabio Martinelli, Antonella Santone and Francesco Mercaldo
Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(22), 11854; https://doi.org/10.3390/app152211854 - 7 Nov 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 627
Abstract
Access control schemes and models are essential tools for system administrators to protect the integrity of the information. However, they are frequently articulated in natural language, which is a powerful form that guarantees flexibility and expressiveness; however, their inherent ambiguity and unstructured nature [...] Read more.
Access control schemes and models are essential tools for system administrators to protect the integrity of the information. However, they are frequently articulated in natural language, which is a powerful form that guarantees flexibility and expressiveness; however, their inherent ambiguity and unstructured nature pose significant challenges for automated enforcement and rigorous analysis. In this study, we evaluated several transformer-based models for the automated extraction of key components of Natural Language Access Control Policy (NLACP). To this end, we relied on a labeled dataset comprising software requirements specifications from different sectors, such as healthcare and conference management systems. We then conducted a fine-tuning phase, where the BERT model demonstrated optimal performance in extracting entities within a 3-entity paradigm, achieving an F-Measure value of 0.89. ModernBERT proved to be the most promising model in the more complex 5-entity extraction task, with a maximum F-Measure score of 0.84. Furthermore, we introduce an explainability step using layer-wise integrated gradients to gain insight into the decision-making process of these deep models, ensuring that the extracted policy components are both accurate and interpretable. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue AI-Driven Threat Detection and Resilience in Cyber–Physical Systems)
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