Sam Houston State University paper: “The Need for Interdisciplinary Programs for Control System Cybersecurity”

The Institute for Homeland Security at Sam Houston State University published my paper, “The Need for Interdisciplinary Programs for Control System Cybersecurity”. Operational technology (OT)/control systems support the critical infrastructures of electric power in traditional and renewable energy systems, water, oil/gas, chemicals, manufacturing, pipelines, rail, maritime, building controls, food, agriculture and defense.

There is a convergence of highly integrated automation sharing constructs with information technology (IT). As opposed to business IT cybersecurity, control system cybersecurity is still a developing area. Control system cybersecurity is an interdisciplinary field encompassing computer science, industrial networking, public policy and engineering control system theory and applications. Today’s computer science curriculum often does not address the unique aspects of control systems.

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Correspondingly, the electrical engineering, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, nuclear engineering and industrial engineering curricula do not address computer security. Public policy has not addressed the unique issues with control system cybersecurity in cybersecurity policymaking. Consequently, there is a need to form joint interdisciplinary programs for control system cybersecurity.

This paper discusses the needs for interdisciplinary programs in control system cybersecurity and provides recommendations for both addressing this serious challenge and training future multidisciplinary hardware and cybersecurity experts.