Special Session 5

CYPHER: Cybersecurity for Yielding Protection in Hyperconnected Ecosystems and Resilience

Securing digital infrastructures has become a global priority as digital technologies permeate modern life. Cloud systems, IoT platforms, and edge computing enable unprecedented ease, efficiency, and innovation in healthcare, transportation, manufacturing, and energy. However, this interconnection creates weaknesses that, if abused, can devastate businesses, countries, and individuals. The continual interplay of cloud, edge, and IoT layers produces complex relationships that are hard to safeguard. The fast adoption of disruptive technologies like AI, ML, and blockchain, which are often incorporated without security protocols, exacerbates these dependencies. In addition, IoT devices and traditional IT solutions provide insecure endpoints, poor lifecycle management, and interoperability issues. These flaws leave digital infrastructures vulnerable to DDoS, ransomware, and APT attacks.

Innovative resilient, scalable, and adaptable solutions are needed to overcome these issues. Disruptive cybersecurity technology could change threat detection, analysis, and mitigation. AI-driven anomaly detection and predictive analytics can help organisations anticipate and respond to developing dangers. Privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) secure sensitive data shared across federated systems and industrial data spaces. By presuming all network entities are compromised, Zero-Trust architectures reduce insider attacks and lateral mobility. Digital infrastructure security involves protecting components and the system’s stability and resilience. This involves protecting essential communication networks, cloud infrastructures, IoT ecosystems, and their data. Effective cybersecurity avoids assaults, maintains key services, builds user trust, and promotes innovation in smart cities, Industry 4.0, and eHealth. These solutions enable the digital transformation with trust and reliability by addressing security from hardware to software and data gathering to processing.

This call for papers encourages researchers, practitioners, and industry professionals to collaborate on innovative solutions to these problems. To improve digital infrastructure security and prepare for upcoming cybersecurity threats, the goal is to develop the field.

Topics of Interest

Submissions are invited on innovative approaches, tools, and methodologies that contribute to the following outcomes:

1. Cybersecurity Resilience and Detection:
   • Tools for improving preparedness, awareness, and detection of threats across critical infrastructures and supply chains.
   • Advanced vulnerability mitigation strategies for cloud infrastructures and secure lifecycle management.
   • Correlating security events across IT, OT, and IoT layers to improve detection and mitigate risks.
2. IoT and Zero-Trust Architectures:
   • Secure integration of untrusted IoT devices into trusted environments.
   • Deployment of Zero-Trust architectures to enhance security in massive IoT ecosystems.
   • Techniques for securing IIoT environments against evolving threats such as industrial espionage, malware, and supply chain attacks.
   • Leveraging cybersecurity for ensuring the integrity of predictive maintenance models in smart factories.
   • Enforcing security throughout the lifecycle of IIoT devices, from onboarding to decommissioning.
3. AI and Privacy-Enhancing Technologies:
   • AI-based automation tools for threat intelligence, predictive security, and anomaly detection.
   • Privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) for secure data spaces and compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR.
   • Methods for ensuring secure data sharing across federated systems and industrial data spaces.
4. Secure Communication and Data Management:
   • End-to-end security for communication systems, including data collection, transport, and processing.
   • Trust and security in the interoperability of distributed systems and secure integration of legacy IT solutions.