CYBER-PHYSICAL SYSTEMS RESILIENCE

The Fast-Track Action Committee (FTAC) on Cyber-Physical Systems Resilience (CPSR) was established in response to a recommendation by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) in their February 2024 report, Strategy for Cyber-Physical Resilience: Fortifying our Critical Infrastructure for a Digital World. The CPSR FTAC is principally supported by the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program’s Computing-Enabled Networked Physical Systems (CNPS), Cybersecurity and Information Assurance (CSIA), and Artificial Intelligence R&D (AI R&D) Interagency Working Groups (IWGs). 

The CPSR FTAC has been tasked by Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and NITRD to develop a National Plan for Cyber-Physical Resilience Research, outlining key priorities for research objectives aimed to improve the cyber-physical resilience of our Nation’s critical infrastructures. As described below:  

• Cyber-physical resilience is the capacity of an integrated system to keep running—even if not at peak performance—should it lose specific functions. Challenges include degradation or cessation of one or more aspects of the computational or physical functions due to component failures, human errors, natural disasters, or malicious attacks. For instance, if one or more of computer-based controls, sensors, or Internet communications employed in a water treatment plant fail, the system should continue to operate, by relying on backup systems and plans, auxiliary sensors, or manual controls.
• Cyber-physical systems are physical systems that rely on computing technologies for sensing, analysis, tracking, controls, connectivity, coordination, or communications. Most of the systems we depend upon across sectors, spanning our electricity, water, healthcare, communications, transportation, manufacturing, and defense, are now cyber-physical in nature.

   

The FTAC is co-chaired by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and Subcommittee on Resilience Science and Technology (SRST).