Doctoral dissertation on cyber resilience of cyber-physical systems defended

A meeting of the Dissertation Council ED 1.35 operating under the Institute of Information Technology under the Ministry of Science and Education was held.

Opening the event, Professor Alakbar Aliyev, Doctor of Technical Sciences and Deputy Chairman of the Council, announced the meeting was dedicated to the defense of Chief Research Fellow Lyudmila Sukhostat’s dissertation, titled "Development of methods and algorithms for cyber resilience of cyber-physical systems," to obtain the degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences, specializing in 3338.01 – "System Analysis, Control, and Information Processing."

The Scientific Secretary of the Dissertation Council, Associate Professor Fargana Abdullayeva, PhD in Technical Sciences, introduced the Council members to the documents in the personal file of the claimant, Associate Professor L. Sukhostat.

Then, L. Sukhostat presented her dissertation. The applicant reported the publication of 17 articles related to the dissertation, including 11 indexed in Web of Science and 4 in Scopus, along with 16 conference proceedings.

The presenter stated that the main goal of the research is to develop methods and algorithms for ensuring the cyber resilience and information security of cyber-physical systems (CPSs) based on the intellectual analysis of big data related to cyber threats and system failures.

The claimant stated that several issues were considered in the dissertation to achieve the set goal. According to the speaker, the dissertation analyzed the current state and identified the challenges of cyber resilience in CPSs, followed by the proposal of a conceptual model to ensure the system's cyber resilience.

She also brought attention to the developed methods and algorithms for the intellectual analysis of big data in CPSs and presented the obtained results based on experiments. She noted that a method for classifying cyber-attacks on CPSs using Extreme Learning Machine (ELM), a method for detecting DoS attacks using an ensemble of classifiers, and an algorithm for detecting malware based on visual representations in cyber-attacks were developed. L. Sukhostat stated that a method for detecting anomalies in the operational technologies of CPSs based on hierarchical hidden Markov models and a method for classifying faults based on visual representations in the devices of CPSs were developed in the work. She also emphasized that a number of methods were proposed to assess the cyber resilience of CPSs.

The reviews of the official opponents for the dissertation—Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor Naila Musayeva; Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor Valeh Mustafayev; Doctor of Technical Sciences, Associate Professor Zarifa Jabrayilova; and Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor Balami Ismayilov—were presented. The speakers noted that complex issues were successfully raised and solved in the dissertation dedicated to current scientific problems. They also presented advisory criticisms and suggestions concerning the theoretically and practically significant dissertation.

The opponents stressed that the research is a high-quality, completed scientific work that fully meets the requirements of the Supreme Attestation Commission for awarding scientific degrees.

Subsequently, the claimant answered the questions addressed to her. Corresponding Member of ANAS, Professor Masuma Mammadova, Corresponding Member of ANAS Ramiz Aliguliyev, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor Igbal Babayev, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor Nadir Aghayev, Doctor of Technical Sciences Mutallim Mutallimov, PhD in Technical Sciences, Associate Professor Rashid Alakbarov, PhD in Technical Sciences, Associate Professor Ramiz Shikhaliev, and PhD in Technical Sciences, Associate Professor Fargana Abdullayeva, who participated in the discussions, stated that the dissertation work carried out by the claimant was a completed work and noted that the issues set forth had been resolved.

Subsequently, the scientific advisor for the dissertation work, Vice-President of ANAS, Director General of the Institute of Information Technology under the Ministry of Science and Education, and Academician Rasim Alguliyev, delivered a speech. The academician emphasized that this dissertation, aimed at solving the highly relevant problem of ensuring the cyber resilience of CPSs at the international, regional, and national levels, is of great importance for our country not only from a scientific but also from a strategic point of view. The scientist noted that the problems of CPSs have been studied in Azerbaijan for many years, recalling that research in this direction began in our country as early as the 1980s, and studies aimed at ensuring the security of these systems deepened further from the early 2000s.

"The study of problems in the intellectualization of CPSs is one of the main priority areas of the institute," said Academician Rasim Alguliyev, emphasizing that research in this field is also supported within the framework of several grant projects implemented by ANAS and the Science Foundation of the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The Director General of the Institute noted that the general architectural scientific-theoretical foundations for ensuring the cybersecurity and cyber resilience of CPSs, which is a new scientific direction, were developed in the dissertation, and the results obtained were published in journals indexed in prestigious international databases.

Academician R. Alguliyev highlighted that Associate Professor L. Sukhostat has conducted research for many years in current scientific fields at the Institute of Information Technology, earning deep respect and prestige among the collective for her noble character. R. Alguliyev recalled that L. Sukhostat received the Presidential Award for Youth in 2017, under a Decree issued by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.

Academician R. Alguliyev stated that the research carried out by the claimant was a completed work and possessed scientific novelty. The scientist expressed his belief that the dissertation, which is of great importance for our country, will give an impetus to the relevant work carried out in this direction in Azerbaijan. He noted that the dissertation, as a result of long-term research, makes a significant contribution to one of the main directions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: the problems of intelligent management of CPSs.

The academician stated that the results obtained are of national importance from a scientific and applied perspective and highly appreciated the dissertation.

After the claimant's final words were heard, a secret electronic vote was held by accessing the "Personal Cabinet" on the official website of the Higher Attestation Commission.

Based on the voting results, it was proposed to petition the Higher Attestation Commission under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan for the conferment of the Doctor of Technical Sciences academic degree upon L. Sukhostat.

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