IUCRC Phase I: The University of Arkansas: Center for Infrastructure Trustworthiness in Energy Systems (CITES)

The Center for Infrastructure Trustworthiness in Energy Systems (CITES), a new Phase I IUCRC, focuses on research issues in the critical area of cyber resilience and the trustworthiness of energy systems (e.g., electric grid generation, transmission, and distribution), which have an extensive dependence on cyber technology. Composed of three University sites (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Arkansas, and Florida International University), CITES seeks to advance research and technologies that addresses unmet and underserved industry needs to better secure energy systems.

In close partnership with its members (Offices of Emergency Medical Services, energy providers, national labs, and industry associations), CITES will help secure the national defense by developing research that leads to practical means of protecting energy systems against failure within and attacks upon their cyber infrastructures. The fundamental issues addressed by CITES concern cyber resilience in the context of the specialized requirements for these “operational technology” (OT) systems, issues which include the heterogeneity of OT equipment, and integration with much more widely used informational technology (IT) equipment.

The Center will focus on detecting and quickly responding to attacks on the cyber infrastructure, rapidly recovering from the impacts of successful attacks, decreasing the costs and risks of patching operational systems, and ensuring that communication between devices happens fast enough and with enough volume to support operations. CITES will also serve an important role in augmenting the nation’s workforce in OT-knowledgeable cyber-security professionals.

Research methodologies include system design, system analysis, formal methods and other mathematics, and empirical evaluation of prototypes. CITES technical contributions include knowledge creation, knowledge transfer, and empirical proofs of concept that utilize the power system facilities at the University of Arkansas. Energy providers benefit by observing the potential for increased cybersecurity and resilience; Equipment manufacturers benefit from proven ideas and other stakeholders benefit from increased knowledge.

CITES research at the University of Arkansas is organized around five thrusts: 1) Vulnerability assessment and mitigation – methods for assessing the risks of security vulnerabilities and mitigating vulnerabilities in optimal ways; 2) Artificial intelligence-based attack detection – methods for detecting attacks, incidents, and anomalies timely and effectively, leveraging recent advances in artificial intelligence; 3) Secure and resilient communications – methods to make energy system networks and communications secure against attacks and resilient against failures; 4) Supply chain security – methods for provisioning integrity, provenance, and other security properties in supply chains; and 5) Power electronic device hardening and security-by-design – reference designs and technologies for securing power electronics, such as firmware security and in-device attack detection.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.