Leveraging New Cyber Technologies for Resilient Mission Communications

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, communications and information systems (CIS) have become the backbone of global economic growth and prosperity, thus unleashing the need for digital transformation, and constituting a critical resource on which all economic sectors rely. In this context, a mission-oriented dimension in communications aims to ensure effective system employment while adapting to changes in each situation. The focus is to address configurable information management solutions in cyberspace concerning mission plans (assets, capabilities, dependencies, alternatives, goals, tasks, priorities, etc.) including enabling techniques. They are expected to shed some light, for instance, on performance improvements to cyber defence solutions, such as management dashboards in a security operation centre (or similar organisations), complemented with decision-making techniques to achieve resilience of information infrastructures, computer networks, data, and signals. These aspects will develop into innovative approaches, challenges, and opportunities to promote advanced situational awareness and capabilities.

The main objective of this Special Issue is to collect contributions by leading-edge researchers from academia and the industry, and show the latest research results in the rapidly developed field of cyber security technologies for the purpose of mission communications, therefore providing valuable information to researchers as well as practitioners. Manuscripts regarding novel algorithms, architectures, implementations, on-going projects, and experiences are welcome. These may cover all aspects of this research field, including cyber defence, communications, electronics, situational awareness, multisensor data fusion, command and control, decision-making, etc.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Cyber situational awareness (CSA) and the common operational picture (COP);
• Key cyber terrain identification and assessment;
• Mission impact assessment for cybersecurity;
• Dynamic risk management for cybersecurity;
• Anticipation and projection of cyber-physical situations;
• Holistic decision systems and decision techniques;
• Mission-oriented network analytics and data fusion;
• Visual analytics and presentation of the environment;
• Incident response mechanisms including notification and information sharing;
• Command and control (C2) and course of action planning;
• Mission-oriented artificial intelligence;
• Modelling and simulation of cyber and electronic activities;
• Convergence of cyber and electronic activities;
• Digital transformation, cybersecurity, and resilience;
• Education and training.

Dr. Jorge Maestre Vidal
Prof. Salvador Llopis Sanchez
Dr. Marco Antonio Sotelo Monge
Prof. Dr. Gregorio Martinez Perez
Dr. Gerardo Ramis Pasqual de Riquelme
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Electronics 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.

• cyber defence
• cyber-physical systems
• cyber and electronic activities
• situational awareness
• mission communications
• mission planning