Research to focus on cyber-security

The research will help understand and mitigate threats from hackers or malware infiltrating the systems behind our critical national infrastructure.

The Research Institute in Trustworthy Industrial Control Systems (RITICS), based at Imperial College London, is co-ordinating the research with a £2.5 million investment into new projects at Queen’s University of Belfast, the University of Birmingham, City University London and Lancaster University.

The research investment comes from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the UK’s National Cyber Security Programme. The Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) and GCHQ are actively supporting the research.

Research teams will work with industry partners to understand and analyse the risks from cyber-attack, examine how risk is communicated to business and provide effective interventions to counter the risk. Metrics and software tools will be produced so that non-technical decision makers can assess cyber-security in the context of their business.

Historically industrial control systems were kept isolated to keep them secure, however these systems are now connected into complex and interconnected networks via the internet. There are many business advantages from such interconnections, but there are also greater risks that need to be recognised and effectively managed.   

Professor Chris Hankin, from the RITICS at Imperial College London, explains; "Where control systems are linked to the internet we need to understand how failures could cascade across the system. We will be looking at new ways of repairing damage to systems if an attack happens.”

"We need to address how to approach network maintenance for industrial control systems, particularly as most systems operate on a 24/7 basis. So we will be looking at how we can ensure better protection without compromising performance.”