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Title: Secret Protection in Discrete Event Systems

Instructor:                     Ziyue MA (maziyue@xidian.edu.cn; maziyue@gmail.com)

Timetable:                     May 28th and 30th, 3.00-5.00 pm, room R, building I

Abstract

Security issues of cyber-physical systems have drawn much attention in recent years. A system usually contains some secrets that are not expected to be exposed or hacked by unauthorized external intruders. In this 4-hour lectures, we introduce to students a general framework to secret protection in discrete-event systems. Our aim is to design an event-protecting policy such that any user, either legal or unauthorized, who visits a secret state must successfully executes/hacks a number of protected events to have an authorization satisfying the safety requirement. Two criteria of optimality (disruptiveness and cost) of designing protecting policies will be considered.

Syllabus

1. Discrete-event Systems and Secret Protection    1 h

Basics of discrete-event systems (automata). Secret protection concepts.

2. Secret Protection in Discrete-event Systems with Minimal Disruptiveness 1 h

Disruptiveness of event protection. Supervisory control theory basics. Reduction from secret protection to supervisory control. Existence and uniqueness of secret protecting policy.

3. Secret Protection in Discrete-event Systems with Minimal Costs  2 h

Cost of event protection. Cut and s-t min-cut in graph theory. Minimal cost protection in distinctly labeled automata. Centralities in networks. Minimal cost protection in non-distinctly labeled automata.

Final proof

An assessment is scheduled to evaluate the comprehension of concepts covered throughout the course; 0.5 CFU will be recognized to PhD students in Electronic and Computer Engineering and to Master students in Computer Engineering, Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence who successfully complete the proof.

Reading Materials

•          Ziyue Ma, Slides on “Secret Protections with Costs and Disruptiveness in Discrete-Event Systems”, 2024.

References

•          Z. Ma, J. Jiang, K. Cai. “Secret Protections with Costs and Disruptiveness in Discrete-Event Systems Using Centralities”, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 2024.

•          Z. Ma, K. Cai. “Optimal Secret Protections in Discrete-Event Systems”, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 2022, 67(6), 2816-2828.

•          Z. Ma, K. Cai. “On Resilient Supervisory Control Against Indefinite Actuator Attacks in Discrete-Event Systems”, IEEE Control Systems Letters, 2022, 6, 2942-2947.

Biography

Ziyue Ma received the B.Sc. degree and the M.Sc. degree from Peking University, Beijing, China, in 2007 and 2011, respectively. In 2017 he got the Ph.D degree in cotutorship between Xidian University (China) and the University of Cagliari (Italy). He is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Electro-Mechanical Engineering, Xidian University. His current research interests include control theory in discrete event systems, automata and Petri net theories, fault diagnosis, resource optimization, and information security.

Dr. Ma is a member of Technical Committee of IEEE Control System Society on Discrete Event Systems and IFAC Technical Committee 1.3 on Discrete Event and Hybrid Systems. He is serving as the Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering and is serving/has served in the Conference Editorial Board of various IEEE/IFAC Conferences in the last decade. In 2016 and 2022 he received the Outstanding Reviewer Award from the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control and IEEE Control System Letters, respectively.

*** More details about the rooms and the exact time schedule will be provided very soon ***