Tommy of The University of Alabama in Huntsville

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) control systems are prevalent across critical infrastructure. These systems are threatened by cyber attackers and must be able to defend themselves against those threats. Attacks against SCADA systems often use trusted components within the system to attack other components. The Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) sits at the cyber physical edge and is not only the controller of a critical physical process, but ultimately must also act as its own defender. This presentation introduces SCADA, common threats to SCADA, and then presents a variety or research projects that Dr. Morris, his students, and his colleagues in the Center for Cybersecurity Research and Education (CCRE) have worked on to defend these critical systems.

Biography:

Dr. Tommy Morris currently serves as the founding Director of the Center for Cybersecurity Research and Education (CCRE) and as an Eminent Scholar and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Dr. Morris received his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX with a research emphasis in cyber security. His primary research interests include cyber security for industrial control systems and cyber physical systems. He has authored more than 90 peer reviewed research conference and journal articles in these areas. Dr. Morris’s research projects are funded by the US Army, National Security Agency, National Science Foundation, Department of Homeland Security, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, NASA, the US Army Corps of Engineers Engineering Research Development Center (ERDC), and multiple technology companies. Prior to joining UAH, Dr. Morris served at Mississippi State University from 2008-2015 and Texas Instruments (TI) from 1991-2008.

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