Critical Infrastructure and Control Systems Security: An Interdisciplinary Approach

This paper describes a recently completed curriculum sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security, Control System Security Program designed to address the managerial, technical, economic, and public policy challenges of creating resilient and secure control systems. The course, Critical Infrastructure and Control Systems Security Curriculum, was authored by a multi- university collaborative team and is available to any interested institutions or individuals without charge. The curriculum is intended to complement and extend traditional courses offering to instruct students on best practices by actively engaging with the larger barriers that prevent firms and governments from creating and implementing policies that support resilient and robust critical infrastructures. The course primarily focuses on control systems security but also is applicable to the challenges faced by a variety of different critical infrastructures. The curriculum examines the intersection between private action, public policies, and the design and deployment of particular technologies. The course is interdisciplinary in orientation and is designed to be taught to a mixed audience of students drawn from the fields of engineering, management, and economics. The paper will describe the outline of the course and its rationale.