SBIR-STTR Award

The integration of new cyber technologies in emergency response systems can allow profound improvements in system performance, but also expose the systems to systemic security and privacy risks.Thus, there is a critical need for design-time risk-assessment tools for emergency response systems, which allow evaluation and mitigation of threat impacts across their heterogeneous cyber and physical components.Our vision is that state-space network models provide a compelling framework for risk assessment in complex networked cyber-physical systems such as next-generation emergency-response systems, because they can enable counterfactual analysis of vulnerabilities to such systems.In this Phase I effort, we will analyze the feasibility of design-time risk assessment and mitigation in emergency response systems using the state-space network modeling approach, via a full-scale case study.The project has significant potential for commercialization, with customers including regulatory offices for emergency communications at the Department of Homeland Security, 911 call centers and associated local governments, and vendors interested in deploying new technologies into 911 systems.

The Next-Generation 911 (NG911) initiative, which aims to update the United States' emergency communications systems to be Internet Protocol-based, should bring about profound benefits in system usability and resilience. However, there is great concern that NG911 systems will be highly vulnerable to cyber- risks, both because the increased accessibility provided by the system increases likelihood of intrusions, and because increased interconnectivity may amplify the consequence or impact of threats. The concern about cyber risks represents a significant barrier and cost in adoption of NG911, yet system stakeholders do Nt have tools available for systematically designing again risk at the planning stage, Nr for monitoring and mitigating actualized threats during operations. The purpose of this project is to develop quantitative risk assessment, monitoring, and mitigation techNlogies for the NG911 system, by developing dynamic network models and advanced analytics that enable risk management.