Critical infrastructure cybersecurity chair

The Institut Mines-Télécom CNI Chair specializes in research and training in the field of critical infrastructure cybersecurity. Critical infrastructure includes energy networks, industry processes, water production plants, financial systems. This is a recent scientific discipline which has quickly become critical for many companies and organizations. The chair brings together researchers from Télécom Paris, IMT Atlantique and Télécom SudParis. Around ten industry partners provide the funding.

In the space of just a few decades, seemingly all-powerful information and communication systems have appeared everywhere. Our societies, organizations and companies are all increasingly dependent on these new technologies. They were initially restricted to purely commercial, financial and social applications but they are now everywhere. They affect every single aspect of human activity, including supply chains, industry control processes, smart grids. The smart city of the future will optimize costs and city organization for the well-being of its residents, which can only happen with the design of information and communication systems that are even more powerful, sophisticated and connected. This invisible transformation is naturally an amazing source of progress and innovation. Gradually, these technologies will herald a new era for humankind: the age of disruption. The dawning of this new era, with its new information and communication system infrastructures, is not without problems, however. Although information and communication systems control increasingly critical operations, they are also increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks. We have never experienced so many flaws and threats!

 

Since the CNI Chair was launched in Rennes, Brittany, in January 2016, it has conducted important research on the security of critical infrastructure. The work has reached a national and international audience and achieved recognition for its innovative nature. In addition, the CNI Chair has trained an entire generation of Institut Mines-Télécom’s students, in these areas and in remediation techniques. It is also setting up collaborative projects with its industry partners (Airbus Defence and Space, Amossys, BNP Paribas, EDF, La Poste, Nokia, Orange and Société générale) and establishing a close relationship with the Brittany region, especially with the Cyber Center for Excellence.

Four objectives

  1. Carrying out innovative research projects on the security of critical infrastructure.
  2. Providing training via research to a new generation of Institut Mines-Télécom students.
  3. Re-enforcing cooperation with industry and consolidating links with the Brittany region.
  4. Capitalizing on our research in security with academic and business communities.

Four research themes

  1. Analytics
  2. Metrics
  3. Remediation
  4. Secure data management