ECCWS Mini Tracks

The Mini Tracks for ECCWS

• 5G, Smart Grid Cybersecurity and Cyber-Ranges
• Advancing Education for Cyber Security, Cyber Defence and Cyber Warfare
• Emerging and Disruptive Technologies in Cyber Security
• Offensive Cyber-operations: Multi-disciplinary perspectives
• Information Warfare: Modelling and Mitigating Misinformation
• Cyber Resilience

• Security and Privacy Challenges in Smart Infrastructure

5G, Smart Grid Cybersecurity and Cyber-Ranges

Mini-Track Chair: Dr Paulo Simões and Dr Tiago Cruz, University of Coimbra, Portugal

ECCWS23-MT-5G.pdf (38 downloads)  

Deployments of 5G networks are spreading worldwide at a fast pace, introducing new models for network architectures, and enabling new ecosystems for the deployment of novel services and application. This will enable connection of millions of devices in consumer or industrial IoT applications, among which Smart Grids constitute one of the most important use cases.

Due to the importance of the application domains, as well as the reasonably recent supporting architecture for 5G, this domain will naturally increase the interest of malicious actors, providing fertile ground for many kinds of threats, such as malware, API/service-targeting attacks, data stealing, or ransomware, among many others, which are increasing daily. This situation requires the introduction of suitable intrusion detection, prevention and mitigation mechanisms but also to increase awareness through training and testing. This cannot be undertaken in production environments, calling for the development of realistic cyber-ranges to provide safe grounds for R&D activities.

This mini-track, realized under the auspices of the P2020 POWER and Smart5Grid Projects intends to address these topics, encompassing all the relevant aspects that are involved in such domains.

Suggested topics include but are not limited to:

• Mechanisms for data collection to leverage edge computing models for the security of 5G/Smart Grid environments;
• Algorithms and techniques for security anomaly detection and protection in 5G/Smart Grid environments;
• Security of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications and network infrastructure security in 5G environments;
• Security (auditing, protection, reaction) for 5G/Smart Grid environments;
• Risk and interdependency modelling for 5G/Smart Grids;
• Threat lifecycle and profiling analysis for 5G/Smart Grids;
• Development of cyber-range and testbed environments for 5G/Smart Grid security R&D and training.

Advancing Education for Cyber Security, Cyber Defence and Cyber Warfare

Mini-Track Chair: Dr Olga Angelopoulou, University of Warwick, UK

ECCWS23-MT-Cyber-Education.pdf (48 downloads)  

The information/ cyber security education domain is evolving, while at the same time the threat landscape is advancing. Educators are required to keep up to date with the advances, develop, apply, and deliver activities and sessions with cutting edge content.

There are different educational models, tools and practices that can be employed from educators to adopt the trends and advances in the learning process. This track is an open forum that welcomes current research and work in progress on methods and techniques for advancing education in the broader cyber domain. 

Recommended topics, but not limited to:

• Advancing learning material in cyber education
• Teaching models, platforms and learning environments
• Perspectives and experiences on cyber education
• Learning models for cyber education
• Forming future education techniques
• Case studies and best practises

Emerging and Disruptive Technologies in Cyber Security

Mini-Track Chairs: Dr. Sabarathinam Chockalingam, Institute for Energy Technology, Halden, Norway and Dr. ir. Clara Maathuis, Open University of the Netherlands, Heerlen, The Netherlands

ECCWS23-MT-Emerging-Disruptive.pdf (43 downloads)  

Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Digital Twins, Machine Learning (ML), and Robotics are changing the meaning and definition of cyber security. These and other emerging and disruptive technologies present both risks and opportunities in the field of cyber security. Therefore, this track is dedicated to papers focused on emerging and disruptive technologies in cyber security, which also facilitate discussion on both risks and benefits of such technologies in cyber security.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Cyber Security
• Big Data Analytics in Cyber Security
• Blockchain for Cyber Security
• Digital Twins for Cyber Security
• Augmented Reality (AR)/Virtual Reality (VR)/Extended Reality (XR) for Cyber Security
• Security in Metaverse
• Internet of Things (IoT) Security
• Cyber Security for Robotics
• Cyber Security in 5G and 6G Networks
• Zero Trust Architecture

Offensive Cyber-operations: Multi-disciplinary perspectives

Mini-Track Chairs: Brett van Niekerk, Durban University of Technology, South Africa) and Trishana Ramluckan, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

ECCWS23-MT-Offensive_Cyber-operations.pdf (41 downloads)  

Offensive cyber operations have been evolving since the Stuxnet infection of the Natanz nuclear facility became public, including reported outages of Ukrainian power grids due to cyber-attacks and reported Israeli retaliation against an Iranian port. The WannaCry and NotPetya malware were attributed to state-backed actors. It is clear that “coercive cyber capabilities are becoming a new instrument of state power, as countries seek to strengthen national security and exercise political influence. Military capabilities are being upgraded to monitor the constantly changing cyber domain and to launch, and to defend against, cyber attacks” (IISS, 2014). The World Economic Forum’s The Global Risks Report 2020 (WEF, 2020) lists cyber-attacks in the top 10 risks for both likelihood and impact. Researchers such as Smeets (2022) challenge the perception that offensive cyber capability is an equaliser, and the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict has divided experts on the role of offensice cyber operations in traditional conflict. Therefore, there is a need to engage in research and discussion on offensive cyber operations from multi-disciplinaty perspectives.

• Case studies of offensive cyber-operations
• Diffusion of offensive cyber capabilities
• Models of national cyber-power
• Command and control, intelligence, and targeting for cyber-operations
• Cyber-weapons
• International law and legal frameworks applied to offensive cyber-operations
• Offensive cyber-operations in international relations and diplomacy
• Modelling of nation-state and state-sponsored threat actors
• Closing the gap between technical and policy perspectives on offensive cyber-operations

Information Warfare: Modelling and Mitigating Misinformation

Mini-Track Chair: Dr Keith Scott, De Montfort University, UK

ECCWS23-MT-Misinformation.pdf (35 downloads)  

 “World War III is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.” Marshall McLuhan’s declaration of 1970 marks a shift in the conception of combat, looking towards the present state of affairs. Modern warfare is marked by a collapsing of the neat divisions between ‘war’ and ‘peace’, ‘ civilian’ and ‘military’, and between discrete domains of conflict. In an age of ‘always-on’, multi-domain, non-linear warfare, where information is both a domain in itself and the essential support for all other forms of combat, how do we wage, or mitigate, against Information Warfare?

This track seeks to encourage contributions from and debate among participants from as wide a range of participants as possible, considering IW in the traditional battlespace and in new areas, and the full spectrum of IW activities from PSYOPS and Influence Operations to ‘Fake News’, weaponised memetics, and the manipulation of political discourse.

Topics of interest to this mini-track include but are not limited to:

• Information Warfare
• Influence
• Fake News
• Disinformation and/or Misinformation
• Non-kinetic conflict

Cyber Resilience

Mini-Track Chair: Christoph Lipps, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence – Intelligent Networks Research Department, Germany  

ECCWS23-MT-Cyber-Resilience.pdf (33 downloads)  

Communication and the exchange of information have always been a driving force and the foundation of relationships and interaction within societies. Due to the increasing globalization of systems and the fusion of the virtual and physical world - towards Cyber Physical Systems (CPS), Digital Twins (DTs) and the (Industrial) Internet of Things ((I)IoT) -, the significance of communication itself and the exchange of data is rising as well. And this, to the extent that telecommunications and information technology are considered one of the essential sectors of the Critical Infrastructure. Recent innovations in mobile communications, such as Beyond 5G (B5G) and the Sixth Generation (6G) of wireless systems, are accelerating this trend even more. With this dependency and the increasing value of the transmitted information, however, comes the fact that the systems are becoming increasingly attractive to attackers and saboteurs, entailing the need for technical solutions to detect, evolve and protect the systems.

Thus, the core challenge will be hardening the communication networks by addressing the entire cyber resilience lifecycle: Improving security, detecting attacks, responding to them and recovering from occurred ones. Therefore, this track focuses not only on security in wireless systems and mobile communications, but encompasses all aspects of system security, including but not limited to:

• Cyber Resilience Lifecycle
• Beyond 5G & 6G Wireless System Security
• Physical Layer Security
• Biometrics
• Network Security
• Artificial Intelligence for Security

Security and Privacy Challenges in Smart Infrastructure

Mini-Track Chair: Shahzad Ahmed Memon, Beykoz University, Istanbul, Turkey

ECCWS23-MT-Security-Privacy.pdf (30 downloads)  

The purpose of this track is to bring together the experts including academics, industrialists related to the cyber security research and practices on smart infrastructures such as smart healthcare, smart transportations, smart surveillance, and smart energy systems. Many of the critical infrastructures are migrating towards smart infrastructures by deploying IoT, artificial intelligence and next generation communication technologies. These technologies are very attractive to investors as well as academia, and researchers and are expected to have a drastic global impact on human life and the economy.

This mini track is expected to attract field experts, academicians, and researchers to present/discuss ongoing research, latest developments, good security practices, possible solutions, and recommendations to manufacturer and decision makers and future challenges of cyber security and privacy in various smart infrastructures

Suggested topics include but are not limited to:

• Cyber security in Smart Transportation
• Privacy and security in Smart healthcare
• Risk assessment frameworks for smart infrastructures
• Security and privacy risks in 5G networks
• Smart Surveillance, Safety, and security
• Emerging cyber security and privacy with artificial intelligence
• Cyber security challenges with smart energy systems