Domain #7: Digital security and blockchain

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Towards secure, distributed digital infrastructures

In order to meet performance and agility challenges faced by our modern society, cyber-physical systems must constantly evolve.
This evolution can be seen in the rapid and profound digitalisation of systems, driven by new hardware and software components that are massively connected and often distributed. These components, being more exposed, have become the preferred target of malicious actors whose knowledge, techniques, means and motivations are constantly growing. In this context, threat control and prevention are necessary but not always sufficient.
A paradigm shift is needed, to promote the deployment of robust, resilient and trusted systems from the design stage (i.e., by design).

Challenges

Security must be thought of comprehensively, covering hardware, software and data, both in terms of prevention and reaction. There are many challenges: protection of sensitive or personal data, post-quantum cryptography, resilience of intrusion detection mechanisms, etc. Moreover, the human element is a determining factor in the effectiveness of the protection measures in place. Training requirements must be combined with the need to automate cybersecurity in a context where emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and distributed registers, are becoming increasingly important.

Positioning of the institute

IRT SystemX addresses the challenges of cybersecurity and the management of distributed registers (i.e. blockchain) by proposing state-of-the-art solutions and developing upstream R&D projects with its partners. Machine learning-based innovative approaches are used to reduce attack surfaces. Cyber resilience approaches are studied and tested at the institute and work is carried out on blockchain architectures, protocols and scaling in various application areas such as connected mobility, maritime, energy, etc.

Roadmap

Scientific and technological challenges	Related research fields
Protection of services and data	• Dynamic identity management • Trust for secure processing • Projection of user data and privacy
Detection of attacks and reduction of the exposure window	• Evaluation of intrusion detection systems (IDS) • Improved attack detection and implementation of business IDS • Hybridization of detection approaches (signature, AI, business knowledge) • Intrusion detection on encrypted flows
Threat analysis and and reaction to attacks	• Identification of the hybrid threat (internal and external) • Threat identification and quantification • Digital resilience • Secure patch management • Hybridization of security and safety
Accompanying the rise in maturity of blockchains	• Foundations of blockchains (performance, security and energy consumption) • Federation and integration of blockchains (interoperability) • Security of smart contracts • Governance of blockchains