The dynamic threat landscape against our nation’s critical infrastructure increasingly requires the ability to apply novel machine-speed and multidisciplinary methods for cyber threat prevention, detection, and response. However, the capacity to achieve the necessary autonomy is critically limited by a lack of robust training data and test environments (physical and virtual) representative of actual operational systems, inability to understand and predict the downstream consequences of defender and attacker actions, and insufficient technical talent and transition pathways to validate and deploy new capabilities rapidly.
The GT-PNNL Institute for Cybersecurity and Resilient Infrastructure Studies (ICARIS) was formed in 2022 to deliver the technologies, test-beds, and talent necessary to secure the nation’s critical infrastructure. This collaboration brings together the capabilities of PNNL and Georgia Tech to accelerate our combined contributions to the security of the critical infrastructure community.
ICARIS leverages the unique capabilities of the faculty, students, and staff of PNNL, the Schools and Colleges of Georgia Tech, and the Georgia Tech Research Institute.
The primary goals of the Institute are three-fold:
- perform translational R&D that moves innovative concepts towards implementation into operational environments;
- develop the future workforce; and
- provide advice and solutions to communities, states, federal agencies, and businesses.
About PNNL
PNNL advances the frontiers of knowledge, taking on some of the world’s greatest science and technology challenges. Distinctive strengths in chemistry, Earth sciences, biology, and data science are central to our scientific discovery mission. Our research lays a foundation for innovations that advance sustainable energy through decarbonization and energy storage and enhance national security through nuclear materials and threat analyses.
For more than two decades, PNNL has advanced resilient cyber capabilities, including our work in cybersecurity, by advancing methodologies, algorithms, data analytics and tools to equip cyber defenders; enabling stronger, more resilient technologies and systems; and understanding, predicting, and defending complex adaptive systems.
PNNL also the site selected by the Department of Energy Office of electricity for the Grid Storage Launchpad, which will accelerate development of next-generation energy storage technology as a national priority for modernizing the power grid and unlocking a broad array of economic and societal benefits.
About Georgia Tech
The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) is one of the nation’s top public research universities with more than 50,000 students who study in person at the main campus in Atlanta, at off-campus instructional sites such as Georgia Tech-Europe in France, and through distance and online learning. Tech’s engineering and computing Colleges are the largest and among the highest-ranked in the nation. The Institute also offers outstanding programs in business, design, liberal arts, sciences, and lifetime learning. With $1.37 billion annually in research awards across all seven Colleges and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), Georgia Tech is among the nation’s most research-intensive universities. It is an engine of economic development for the state of Georgia, the Southeast, and the nation.
The School of Cybersecurity and Privacy, ranked #2 in Cybersecurity, is one of five schools in the #6 ranked College of Computing. Founded in September 2020, it builds on the strong foundation and continued success of the cybersecurity research, education, and service efforts at Georgia Tech that began more than twenty years ago. SCP consists of 25+ faculty working to fulfill a mission of “Building security in everything, for everyone, every day.” We believe that societal problems require multidisciplinary solutions, that rigorous research can be inspired everyday problems, that developing tomorrow’s leaders requires revolutionizing security education, and that together we can create a more secure future. Our faculty teach topics in public policy, law, international affairs, engineering, and computing in order develop the next generation of leaders who solve societal problems from cybercrime to trustworthy AI and who are trained to not only ask “does it work?” but importantly “is it secure?”
About Georgia Tech Research Institute
The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 3,000 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $869 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI’s renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.
The Cybersecurity, Information Protection, and Hardware Evaluation Research Laboratory (CIPHER) is the GTRI home of the IACRIS program. CIPHER is a leader in developing the technologies that secure, defend, and respond to threats within our country’s information, distribution, and network systems. CIPHER provides high-impact solutions to some of today’s most challenging cybersecurity problems, while also turning revolutionary concepts and breakthrough technologies into practical capabilities to address future threats. CIPHER engineers and scientists develop and deploy cutting-edge technologies in computing, network architectures, signal and protocol analysis, hardware security and trust, assured software and algorithms, network forensics, malware analysis, hardware and software reverse engineering, and advanced analytics.