Abstract
Cyber-physical systems (CPS) underpin a wide range of critical infrastructures, yet their inherent interconnection between computational and physical domains renders them highly susceptible to sophisticated cyber threats. Among the defense strategies proposed to address these vulnerabilities, model-based anomaly detection has emerged as a particularly promising approach, leveraging analytical representations of system dynamics to detect, localize, and counteract malicious activities. This talk surveys recent contributions from the last five years of research, with a focus on methodological advances and emerging trends. The analysis reveals that the predominant emphasis has been placed on safeguarding data integrity, particularly through the detection of deception attacks, while availability-related threats such as denial-of-service, though comparatively less investigated, are receiving increasing attention. With regard to architectural choices, centralized detection continues to represent the prevailing paradigm; however, decentralized and distributed schemes are gaining traction as viable alternatives to enhance scalability and resilience. In terms of objectives, detection and isolation tasks dominate the current landscape, whereas efforts directed toward system reconstruction and active mitigation remain relatively limited, yet constitute promising directions for future research.
Bio
Federica Pascucci received the Laurea degree (M.S.) in Computer Science and Control Engineering from Roma Tre University in 2000, and the Ph.D. degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in 2004. Since 2006, she has been with Roma Tre University, where she is currently an Associate Professor. Her research interests include robotics, cyber-physical systems, and the analysis and design of networked embedded control systems, with applications to sensor and actuator networks. Her work particularly addresses the resilient design of cyber-physical systems and critical infrastructures, with a focus on water distribution and energy systems. She has authored more than 100 publications in international journals, conferences, and book chapters. With the HCPS-Lab group, she has served as principal investigator in several international research projects as well as in numerous national initiatives.
Software and Systems Engineering (SSE)
Centre for Informatics and Systems (CISUC)
