Engineering for Cyber Resilience: Through-Life Modelling and Analysis (ENCYRCLE)

Engineering and operating safe and secure systems, such as connected transport, manufacturing, and energy systems, is increasingly proving to be a substantial challenge. Traditionally, several factors play a role here including complexity, hyper-connectivity, regulatory compliance and supply chain economics. A step change in this challenge is posed by the introduction of AI, which means systems are continually evolving and operating an increasingly unpredictable environment.
This proposal unites two organisations - Thales and Swansea University - in their vision to make the world a more resilient place, laying down the scientific foundations of cyber resilient systems engineering and operation, and ultimately paving the way for a deeper strategic and prosperity partnership between the two.
The UK’s National Cyber Strategy (2022), currently in place, has explicitly set out the challenge to “identify novel and emerging technology applications that have the potential to create cyber security risks, and ensure the UK is at the forefront of the safe and secure development of these technologies”, and has indeed explicitly identified ‘connected and automated vehicle deployments’ as part of this challenge. More widely, the recent EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), which will come into force over a phased transition period starting in late 2025, insists on cybersecurity requirements governing the planning, design, development and maintenance with obligations to be met at every stage of the value chain. As such, it places on system manufacturers and operators an obligation to provide duty of care for the entire lifecycle of systems such as automotive. Globally, for the automotive industry, the UNECE Regulation 155, which comes into force in July 2024, already mandates a cyber security management system, covering risk assessment and mitigation through the life of automotive platforms.
This proposal sets out to overcome this very challenge by addressing the following research...