CISW-SG 2010 - CISW-SG 2010 Smart Grid Survivability Workshop

CISW-SG 2010 is the first in a planned series of IEEE-sponsored workshops on research and engineering challenges associated with protecting those infrastructures for which significant damage, and the lack of availability for extended periods of time, would have catastrophic impacts on society. The Critical Infrastructure Survivability Workshops provide a forum for researchers, practitioners (such as utilities and vendors), and sponsors to explore the area of survivable critical infrastructures, the nature of the unique (and sometimes not-so-unique) problems associated with engineering such systems in a secure and survivable manner, and promising approaches to finding solutions to these problems.

An emerging discipline, survivability extends the goals of traditional computer security to encompass concepts, methods, and tools that support the ability of a system to continue to fulfill its mission in the presence of attacks, accidents, and failures. The goal is not only to thwart attackers whenever possible, but also to build systems that are robust in the presence of attacks that cannot be completely repelled. The systems that are the primary focus of concern are society’s critical infrastructures. Survivability is more than security, more than safety, and more than fault tolerance. It is a combination of quality attributes that assures that even if significant portions of a critical infrastructure are compromised by an attack, accident, or failure, the essential core societal services provided by that infrastructure will continue (and restoration of full services will occur in an acceptable timeframe).

People with diverse backgrounds and interests that can contribute to advancing the technology, understanding, or applicability of survivability engineering of critical infrastructures are encouraged to participate. Desired participants include, but are not limited to, researchers, domain experts (e.g., practitioners and vendors), system and software engineers, research sponsors, policy planners, regulators, and other stakeholders. An ongoing goal of the workshop series is to continue to define and encourage the formation of communities of interest in the various application and research areas of survivability engineering that can continue to collaborate and share results to the benefit of all who are working toward, and are dependent upon, the survivability of critical infrastructures.