Navigating AI Challenges in Cybersecurity: Strategies for Industrial and IoT Protection

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue tackles pressing challenges in cybersecurity, with a specific focus on protecting industrial control systems and Internet of Things (IoT) devices in the rapidly evolving domain of machine learning and AI applications. A pivotal concern is the resilience of AI-driven systems to the complexities of Adversarial Machine Learning (AML) and the phenomenon of concept drift. While these factors are not direct cyber-attacks, they significantly undermine the effectiveness and dependability of AI models used in cybersecurity. This can lead to severe cybersecurity repercussions, as vulnerabilities in AI can be exploited to compromise the security and integrity of critical systems. Understanding and mitigating these AI-related issues is crucial for maintaining robust cybersecurity defenses in our increasingly interconnected and AI-dependent world.

Areas of focus encompass, but are not limited to, the following:

• Robust and adaptive machine learning techniques that maintain effectiveness in the face of AML strategies, where models are probed and exploited by adversaries.
• Strategies for AI systems in ICS and IoT to effectively adapt to concept drift, where the change in data patterns over time can diminish the accuracy and reliability of machine learning models.
• Evaluations of the vulnerabilities of current AI-based cybersecurity models in industrial and IoT settings, with a focus on their resilience to AML and concept drift.
• Real-world case studies showcasing the implementation of machine learning solutions that effectively address AML and concept drift in industrial and IoT scenarios.
• Theoretical and empirical research on the intersection of machine learning, cybersecurity, and the dynamic challenges posed by AML and concept drift.

Dr. Eirini Anthi
Dr. Lowri Williams
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized 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.