Infrastructures and Security Projects R&D in Cybersecurity R&D in Cybersecurity
The security of networks and information systems poses serious problems that require innovative processes of scientific and technological base resulting from strong research and development (R&D). Only in this way it will be possible to achieve decisive improvements in computer, information and communication systems security that reached a very high complexity and interact with many millions of agents.
The analogies that can be established with biological systems that evolved over millions of years show how the integrity / security of living beings is achieved through sophisticated systems such as the genetic system, the immune system, the hormonal system, the neuronal system, by mechanisms that are structurally part of the biological communication and information processing systems. The scientific knowledge and the technologies associated with similar mechanisms to ensure information security for networks and information systems built by humans still require a huge development, so it is certain that they will continue to be a major topic of R&D.
The Carnegie Mellon – Portugal Program organized in 2010 the Innovation Forum on Security and Critical Infrastructures Protection that initiated the creation of the Innovation Network in Security and Critical Infrastructures Protection. This thematic knowledge network brings together the scientific community, the private sector and key public agencies with the aim of developing a comparative advantage to Portugal in security technologies and services for the protection of critical infrastructures. The Innovation Network in Security and Critical Infrastructures Protection covers the convergence of communication networks, information systems and control technologies, taking into account that the Internet is increasingly the platform of choice for many information flows that support critical infrastructures like power grids, fuel supply grids, materials supply chains, water and food, transport networks and healthcare systems, as well as many small, medium and large enterprises.
Focusing on scientific and technological developments, the Innovation Network in Security and Critical Infrastructures Protection will promote an interdisciplinary approach in which experts from engineering, basic sciences, economics, design and psychology join forces to create new knowledge and develop security solutions for all types of users and businesses. As part of this initiative, the CyLab Portugal is being prepared in Portugal as a consortium of universities and research units in order to innovate in the ICT security area on the basis of the well known CyLab at Carnegie Mellon University.
Also under the Carnegie Mellon – Portugal Program since 2006 annual editions of an innovative Executive Master program in computer security were offered by the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon which were attended by a considerable number of senior staff of several companies.