Please note that CyLab seminars are closed to the public and open to CyLab partners and Carnegie Mellon University faculty, students and staff.

Speaker: Brian Singer

Title: "Shedding Light on Inconsistencies in Grid Cybersecurity: Disconnects and Recommendations."

There is significant disagreement across operational, academic, and policy communities on which threats against the power grid are likely and what damage would ensue. For instance, there is an ongoing debate surrounding the feasibility and impact of MadIoT-style attacks. By surveying grid experts (N=18), we find that disagreements are not only unique to MadIoT attacks but occur across multiple well-studied grid threats. We identify five likely causes of modeling inconsistencies. To check these hypotheses, we create a modeling framework to examine how these factors change our understanding of the feasibility and impact of grid threats. We confirm that our hypothesized causes of modeling inconsistencies have a significant effect on modeling the outcomes of attacks. We conclude with actionable recommendations for accurately assessing the impact of threats against the grid.

These are practice talks for the ECE Ph.D. qualifying examination.