16 September 2024

Experts Are Worried About Cyber Threats To Infrastructure


A small water authority just outside Pittsburgh seemed like an unlikely victim of an international cyberattack.

On Nov. 25, however, a terrorist group successfully targeted the Municipal Authority of Aliquippa, raising concerns about further attacks in the United States and the vulnerability of the nation’s critical infrastructure. The risks associated with these attacks are forcing the worlds of operational technology and information technology to collide, but each field’s methodologies and solutions are vastly different, a disconnect that affects policy decisions and interventions.

This past summer, 16 interdisciplinary Pitt students worked to create solutions and inform action related to cyber-informed engineering (CIE) through the Summer Honors Undergraduate Research Experience in Electric Grid, or SHURE-Grid.

The 12-week program is a collaborative partnership between the David C. Frederick Honors College, the Swanson School of Engineering, Pitt’s Office of Research and the Idaho National Laboratory. With SHURE-Grid more firmly established, leading faculty took an innovative and interdisciplinary approach.


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