Keynote 1: Securing Critical Infrastructures with a cybersecurity digital twin
- Speaker: Massimiliano Masi
- Date: Thursday, June 22nd 2023, 9:15
Critical Infrastructures are common targets for cyber-and-physical attacks. Smart Grids, Water Transport Systems, Railway, or Motorway witness an increase of malware and attacks partially due to the IT/OT convergence. Usually, critical infrastructures are composed by legacy software or hardware that cannot be easily patched or upgraded, facilitating the work of the attackers by exposing vulnerabilities solved in IT decades ago. Moreover, it is usually impossible to have a test system for such infrastructures, where a security countermeasure is evaluated for its impact. In fact, in OT systems, availability is of its utmost importance, thus adding a security countermeasure has to be carefully evaluated to not hinder such property. To overcome such shortcomings, digital twins are used. In this talk, it will be presented how digital twins specifically devised for cybersecurity are used for the evaluation of threats in cyber-and-physical systems in an industrial environment. In particular, it will be shown how a digital twin will be systematically derived from the Architectural representation of a real-world industrial system (the "collaborative intelligent transport system") and how the security measures are evaluated with an specific architectural view.
Massimiliano Masi
Massimiliano Masi is Head of Cybersecurity Engineering in Autostrade Per L'Italia SpA. He received his M.Sc. in Computer Science, and his Ph.D. from the University of Florence in the field of Formal Methods for Cybersecurity. He is working in Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructures since 2007. Dr. Masi participated in large EU research projects involving 30+ organizations (public & private). He is involved in various security expert groups and in standardization activities related to cybersecurity
Keynote 2: Toward AI Enabled Enterprise
- Speaker: Vinay Kulkarni, Tata Consultancy Services Research, India
- Date: Friday, June 23rd 2023, 9:00
Enterprises are fast evolving into complex ecosystems that need to deliver the stated goals while operating in a dynamic and uncertain environment where unforeseen changes occur along multiple dimensions. This calls for appropriate adaptive response in an ever-shrinking window of opportunity while keeping the strategies, operational processes, and software systems of enterprise in sync. Current practice relying principally on human experts is turning out to be ineffective. We propose an approach that builds further upon proven results in modelling and simulation, artificial intelligence, knowledge modelling, software engineering, and control theory to support the vision of AI Enabled Enterprise. We have developed the necessary technology to support realization of this vision. The talk will discuss the approach, associated technology, illustrate in-part realization of the vision in a business vertical, and present open challenges.
Vinay Kulkarni
Vinay Kulkarni is Distinguished Chief Scientist at TCS Research where he heads Software Systems & Services research. His research interests include digital twins, AI-driven adaptive enterprises, learning-native software systems, AI in software development, model-driven software engineering, and enterprise modelling. At present, exploring feasibility of AI-enabling enterprises with modelling, simulation, and analytics. Prior work that focused on making software development an engineering endeavour has been in use for past 25 years across business verticals and has found a way into international standards. Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering, Vinay is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology Madras and serves as Visiting Professor at Aston University Birmingham, Middlesex University London, and Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur.
Invited speech: Philosophical Framework for Business System Modeling
- Speaker: Václav Řepa
- Date: Wednesday, June 21st 2023, 18:00
As an infrastructure, the information system should be based on a comprehensive understanding of the business system that it is intended to support. Therefore, one of the essential principles of information systems development methodologies is the Principle of Modeling. This principle, expressing that the information system is always a model of the Real World business system, persists despite the abrupt development of new and popular approaches and methods that often, unfortunately, cannot be considered an evolutionary step forward. Current ideas like the digital transformation or business-IT alignment that dismantle the border between a business system and its information system make the importance of this principle even stronger.
In the talk, the comprehensive four-dimensional information model of the business system will be defined based on the MMABP Philosophical Framework for Business System Modeling. The two basic phenomena that form the business system and two points of view on the business system will be explained together with their manifestation in the modeling methods in informatics. We will also shortly discuss emerging challenges for these methods following the framework.
Václav Řepa
Václav Řepa is a professor of informatics at the Prague School of Economics and Business and the Škoda Auto University. He is the founder of the Cognitive Informatics study program and the main author of the methodology for analysis and modeling business systems MMABP. He is the author or co-author of over ten books and over a hundred conference and journal contributions in the field of informatics. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the Business Informatics Research series of conferences and a regular member of program committees of a number of international conferences in this field. His professional interests are anchored in the field of informatics mainly in the context of business process-driven management and digital transformation, and consequently, information modeling of organizations.