Cybersecurity and Resilience of Complex Systems: AI, Engineering, and Modeling Approaches

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid convergence of artificial intelligence, digital engineering, and networked infrastructure has fundamentally transformed the landscape of cybersecurity. Modern complex systems—spanning critical infrastructure, smart cities, cyber–physical environments, and distributed IoT ecosystems—face an evolving threat landscape that demands systemic, intelligence-driven, and resilience-oriented approaches to security.

This Special Issue of Systems invites original research and review contributions addressing cybersecurity through the lens of systems engineering and artificial intelligence. We seek work that goes beyond isolated technical solutions to offer integrated, model-based frameworks capable of capturing the complexity, interdependence, and dynamic behavior of real-world secure systems.

We welcome contributions that explore AI both as a tool for cybersecurity—enabling automated threat detection, anomaly recognition, adaptive incident response, and LLM-assisted vulnerability analysis—and as an object of security concern itself, thereby addressing adversarial attacks, model robustness, generative AI-enabled threats, and the trustworthiness of AI-enabled decision-making in safety-critical contexts.

The emergence of federated learning opens new possibilities for privacy-preserving threat intelligence sharing across organizational boundaries. Meanwhile, the anticipated transition to post-quantum cryptographic standards, recently formalized by NIST, creates an urgent need for systems-level approaches to cryptographic agility and infrastructure migration. Zero-trust architecture, cyber-informed engineering (CIE), and resilience-by-design principles are reshaping how secure systems are conceived, built, and governed across their full lifecycle.

Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to, the following: AI-assisted and LLM-enabled security systems engineering; federated and privacy-preserving threat intelligence; zero-trust frameworks for complex systems; post-quantum and quantum-resistant cryptographic protocols; generative AI risks and deepfake-enabled attack vectors; cyber-informed engineering methodologies; resilience modeling of critical infrastructure; security of cyber–physical systems, SCADA, and ICS environments; digital twins for cybersecurity simulation; blockchain-based data provenance; intrusion detection and damage assessment; human-in-the-loop governance frameworks; IoT and edge security architectures; and systems-of-systems security design.

This Special Issue aligns with the broader scope of Systems, emphasizing systems thinking, system dynamics, complex system modeling, and decision-making under uncertainty. We aim to bring together academics and researchers whose work advances the theoretical foundations and applied methodologies of cybersecurity in complex, intelligent, and interconnected systems.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Oleksandr Korchenko
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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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. Systems is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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.

• cybersecurity
• artificial intelligence
• machine learning
• large language models
• federated learning
• zero-trust architecture
• post-quantum cryptography
• adversarial AI
• generative AI threats
• cyber-informed engineering
• cyber resilience
• critical infrastructure
• cyber–physical systems
• digital twins
• blockchain
• intrusion detection
• trustworthy AI
• risk modeling
• SCADA security
• IoT security
• systems engineering
• smart cities
• edge intelligence
• human-in-the-loop
• resilience engineering