Cybersecurity and Privacy Issues in Cyber-Physical Systems and Industrial Control Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are physical and engineered systems that interact with the physical environment. These systems exist everywhere around us, and range in size, complexity and criticality, from embedded systems used in smart vehicles, to SCADA systems in smart grids to control systems in water distribution systems, to smart transportation systems, to plant control systems, engineering workstations, substation equipment, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and other Industrial Control Systems (ICS). CPSs are elements of the Internet of Things (IoT) and, because they have resulted from the integration of information technology with operational technology, are central to the fourth industrial revolution and to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

As CPS and ICS proliferate, and increasingly interconnect and interact among them and with us, they present an increased cyber-attack surface. As they also increasingly affect our life, their cybersecurity becomes of paramount importance. Accordingly, research into the cybersecurity and privacy of CPSs is attracting increasing attention from both industry and academia.

In line with these efforts, the main theme of this Special Issue is to investigate novel methodologies, theories, technologies, techniques, processes, and solutions for CPS cybersecurity and privacy. In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews that present innovative ideas, proof of concepts, use cases, and results from a variety of topics relevant to ICS and CPS are welcome. Topics addressed in the submissions include but are not limited to:

• Attacks and attack detection for CPS and ICS
• Authentication and access control for CPS and ICS
• Blockchain for CPS and ICS cybersecurity
• Data security and privacy for CPS and ICS
• Digital twin security for CPS and ICS
• Embedded systems security
• Formal methods for CPS and ICS cybersecurity
• Incident Response and Digital Forensics for CPS and ICS
• IoT and IIoT cybersecurity and privacy
• Lightweight crypto technologies applied to CPS and ICS
• Maritime CPS cybersecurity
• Methods, tools and techniques for the elicitation, analysis and modeling of security requirements for CPS and ICS
• Penetration testing for CPS and ICS
• Recovery of CPS and ICS from cyber attacks
• Risk management for CPS and ICS
• Secure communication protocols for CPS and ICS
• Security architectures for CPS and ICS
• Security by design for CPS and ICS
• Security testing methods and tools for CPS and ICS
• Threat modeling for CPS and ICS
• Vulnerability analysis for CPS and ICS

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Georgios Kavallieratos
Dr. Georgios Spathoulas
Dr. Marios Anagnostopoulos
Guest Editors

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