The long-term, strategic research goals of CTC include the creation of the fundamental and enabling science and technology for building trustworthy networked information systems for critical infrastructure protection, and the development of techniques, technologies and tools for assessing security risks and trustworthiness of network information systems for selected emergency systems and critical infrastructure protection applications. The CTC will also focus on developing new concepts and doctrines for application to public policy issues around privacy, access control, and security.

The strategic research plan the CTC proposes to pursue is articulated around three main activities. The first activity will aim at identifying the fundamental research obstacles and barriers to the development and deployment of trustworthy systems for critical information protection. The second activity will bring to bear our expertise to address the barriers and obstacles. The proposed solution will be implemented and tested on innovative testbeds for specific applications. The third activity focuses on transferring the new technology to industry.

To achieve this vision, we have organized our research agenda into the following thrusts:

Developing fundamental knowledge in computer-based systems for critical infrastructure protection. The center will address fundamental problems of science and technology for cyber security and critical infrastructure protection. The focus will be on the areas of large scale wired and wireless networks, networked embedded systems and sensors, total system risk assessment, and large scale data dissemination and mining.

Developing enabling technologies and integration tools for large-scale networked information systems. These technologies and tools will enable quantitative evaluation and risk assessment of the interacting components of the information systems for critical infrastructure protection. This activity transforms the fundamental knowledge gained into usable methodologies and processes.

Developing testbeds and experimental laboratories to provide the means necessary to evaluate the developed tools and technologies in critical applications and provide a platform for industrial collaboration. This evaluation will advance our understanding the capabilities of these technologies and tools and will provide necessary feedback in the form of requirements for new fundamental research to enhance national security, reduce the impact of security breaches on the nation’s critical infrastructure, and improve our ability to prevent, detect, respond to, and recover from singular events, whether man-made or natural.

The core of the CTC research team will be composed of faculty members from the Computer Science Department at the University of Pittsburgh. The CTC will also strive to attract and involve faculty members and research associates from other departments who have interest in the main research thrusts of the CTC. It is expected that the CTC will provide the necessary infrastructure and critical resources to foster inter-disciplinary collaborations among these members.

The members of the CTC research team will build on its already strong ties with industrial collaborators and will seek to develop new collaborative relationships with information technology developers and infrastructure providers. These collaboration will serve to both ground our research agenda in real world problems, ensure avenues for knowledge transfer and attract industry funding. The CTC will have a significant impact at a national scale, and our results will lead to new concepts, technologies and tools for security, increased protection of the nation’s critical infrastructures, and improved emergency response systems.