The University of Arizona: Towards a Cross-Plane Methodology for Cyber-Physical Security

Join the Office of Responsible AI and Dr. Dongyan Xu (Purdue University) to learn a practical “cross-plane” approach that connects cyber and physical behaviors to find and confirm vulnerabilities in autonomous vehicles, industrial control systems, and supply chain networks. Coffee, pastries, and networking follow (10:30–11:00 a.m.).

The Office of Responsible AI is pleased to welcome Dr. Dongyan Xu from Purdue University for a special presentation during his visit to the University of Arizona as he explores collaborations and partnerships. Join us in person or online when Dr. Xu shares insights from his work in computer systems security and cyber-physical security, with particular focus on autonomous vehicles, industrial control systems, and supply chain networks.

Presentation: Towards a Cross-Plane Methodology for Cyber-Physical Security

The landscape of cybersecurity has undergone significant changes in the past decade, with its coverage expanding from “cyber-only” systems such as compute job execution, web services, and mobile apps, to “cyber-physical” systems such as smart grids, autonomous vehicles, and manufacturing systems. Today, any system with a cyber component faces threats from cyber attacks, calling for new security approaches and solutions to secure not just the cyber components (i.e., computers and networks), but the overall cyber-physical systems (CPS).

Dr. Xu will discuss new challenges in cyber-physical security that did not exist in traditional computer security, as well as opportunities to secure CPS via an inter-disciplinary cross-plane (cyber and physical) methodology. He will also report the ongoing efforts in CPS vulnerability discovery and confirmation, as concrete instantiation of the cross-plane methodology.