The Soft, White Underbelly of our Critical Infrastructure

Gregory Falco, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Host: Johns Hopkins Department of Computer Science

When we develop new renewable energy, traffic, transportation, medical, public safety and even space systems that our modern society relies on, we expect them to be both safe and secure. Designers often integrate the latest computing techniques into these systems, and expect them to work. However, most critical infrastructure operates under persistently harsh conditions, and the high degree of automation these systems require does not always behave as intended. In this talk we will discuss the soft, white digital underbelly of systems that matter most to our daily lives and how breaking our critical infrastructure will help improve the resilience of future smart cities.

Speaker Biography

Prof. Gregory Falco is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering and the Institute for Assured Autonomy, where he holds an appointment at the Applied Physics Lab. He is the Director of the Autonomy OWL lab, a ‘breaker space’ for cyber-physical systems at the IAA. Falco advises the national security community on space system security and his research has influenced related U.S. policy. He is a Fulbright Scholar and has been listed in Forbes 30 Under 30 for his contributions to industrial control system security. Falco holds a B.S from Cornell University, a M.S. from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from MIT.