Security Threats and Countermeasures in Cyber-Physical Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Wireless, sensor and actuator technologies are often central to sensing- or communication-critical systems. The last two decades have witnessed a revolution in the design of sensors and actuators that have the capacity to gather, analyse and communicate data wirelessly to drive intelligent actions in the physical world. Such Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) adds another integration and coordination dimension between the physical and digital worlds. This digital transformation covers manufacturing, critical care, public health, supply chain and various types of smart connected systems. For instance, the smart city concept has gained advantage from new sensing technologies, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, cloud computing, big data, smart controllers and adaptive robotics for increasing productivity, fostering industrial growth and shifting economics.

CPS, though still in its infancy, is a fast-moving field with limitless potential. In order to take advantage of what wireless sensor and actuator networks can offer to CPS, many technical challenges have to be overcome before that potential can be achieved. When security is overlooked, CPS can potentially pose serious risks for all stakeholders. There are a large number of potential vulnerabilities and methodologies that are specific to CPS where classical security measures are ineffective. Security advancements have not kept pace with emerging threats to CPS. Security threats targeting the sensing and prediction capabilities of CPS and corresponding countermeasures are an under investigated area in the literature. For example, limited attempts have been made to compact malicious data injection attacks in sensors and adversarial machine learning. Failure to consider such threats and adversarial models may leads to exploitable system designs that could have disastrous consequences.

This Special Issue is dedicated to publishing cutting-edge research focused on addressing the various fundamental technical open security challenges related to CPS or IoT. It particularly focuses on future sensor and actuator technologies in the context of smart cities, intelligent transport and healthcare. It also solicits contributions on secure communication technologies and protocols for artificial intelligence-enabled systems.

Topics of interest include the following:

1. Secure design and implementation of methodologies of CPS and IoT systems;
2. Secure communication protocols for machines, actuators, sensors and control systems;
3. Counter measures to emerging threats to CPS and IoT;
4. Multi-sensor data fusion to counter sensor data injection attacks;
5. Predictive data analytics for threat detection in CPS and IoT systems;
6. Security challenges in SCADA systems;
7. Security challenges in smart environments;
8. Secure middleware, frameworks and services for CPS and IoT networks;
9. Communication security and privacy for IoT and CPS systems;
10. Artificial intelligence and machine learning for smart CPS and IoT security;
11. Surveys on security threats and countermeasures in IoT and CPS;
12. Security in Tactile Internet;
13. Blockchain applications to CPS and IoT.
    

Prof. Paul Watters
Dr. Gregory Epiphaniou
Dr. Pedro Pinto
Dr. Mohammad Hammoudeh
Dr. A.S.M. Kayes
Guest Editors

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• security
• threats
• vulnerabilities
• cyber-physical systems
• Internet of Things
• industrial IoT
• smart environments