About

Cyber Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Internet is bringing together intelligent machines, analytics, and people at work and is kicking off a new “Cyber Industrial Revolution.” Recent attacks on specific sectors of the fledgling Industrial Internet demonstrate its fragility and need for safeguarding against malicious actors in order to protect our society. Damage to this vulnerable system would be catastrophic, stranding people without power, healthcare, and transportation. Moreover, such attacks will evolve in sophistication as the Industrial Internet grows.

Successful protection requires an agile approach that leverages diverse expertise and tools enabling response at the speed of this ever changing environment. We must bring together people who span boundaries between engineering, computer and network science, big data, and law and public policy. We must revolutionize how diverse professionals partner. We need ways for such a diverse group to respond quickly to new developments, and find meaningful solutions for the Industrial Internet’s unique and broad goals.

Pitt's Cyber-X Solution

At Pitt, our long term goal is to create a sustainable and flexible center focused on the technological, commercial, legal, and research aspects of securing the Industrial Internet. The team at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) includes people from various schools and institutes across Pitt including: the Swanson School of Engineering, the School of Computing and Information, and Pitt’s Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security (Pitt Cyber).

To address the challenges of cybersecurity for our critical infrastructure, the Center will focus on industry sectors where both security and high-assurance are necessary. Combining security and high-assurance is challenging because it requires both resilience against unknown disturbances and security against intentional adversaries. By combining high-assurance and security, this Center will create new approaches that can be applied to a range of U.S. industries. Doing so will support mission critical operations that can have a significant impact on the economy, society, or human life. This Center will contribute to the science and engineering of assured security, provide for workforce development, and conduct pre-competitive research in areas relevant to industry members. These members are in the manufacturing, energy, finance, medical devices, and defense industries. Specifically, industry members are concerned about mission assurance, trust, certification, the software supply chain, and human factors affecting security.

Pitt's team has four focus areas:

  • Process-Oriented Security
  • Hardware/Software Security
  • Privacy Preserving Technology
  • Law and Public Policy