Skip Ribbon Commands
Skip to main content
Sign In

    Security in Systems of Social -Technical Systems

    ​ ​


    Over the past, computer systems were mainly limited to a sub part of the population, they did not have a strong impact on the daily life and interactions with average humans were limited, if not nonexistent. The increasing complexity of our socio-economic environment has resulted in a growing need for technical systems supporting human activities. As an example, we daily interact with many computer systems such those present in our car (transport) or in our phone (telecommunication). At a macro level, energy-centric systems and medical devices are just two examples that show how such systems are now governing in our daily life.

    Nowadays, systems rely on many devices, which can be fixed or mobile, more or less interconnected and intelligent. They are mostly software intensive, and they interact with a sets of actors such as human, organizational and technical agents. For those reasons, such systems are often referred to as "socio-technical systems" (STS). In an interconnected world, it is commonly admitted that combining systems should not just offer the sum of their functionalities, but also exhibit new (sometimes undesired) behaviors and functionality. This is particularly emphasized when one of the systems has its own intelligence and creativity, which is the case for humans. We thus fall in the context of socio-technical systems of system (SoSTS) that delivers some “unique” capabilities. 

    The objective of this proposal is to propose a rigorous design methodology for SoSTS. The proposed approach will be a unified methodology for assessing risk situations that could help to prevent unexpected behavior of the system and control the effects, while taking into account fundamental human factors.  The results of the research will be applied to a small scale digitized sporting event with the aim to mitigate the significant cybersecurity risks posed by technological advances incorporated into major sporting activities.

    Members

    Lead Principal Investigator (LPI):

    1. Dr. Noora Fetais, Computer Science and Engineering Department, Qatar University (Email: n.almarri@qu.edu.qa)

    Principal Investigators (PI):

    1. Dr. Khaled Khan, Computer Science and Engineering Department, Qatar University (Email: k.khan@qu.edu.qa)
    2. Dr Salah Sadou, Department of Informatics, University of South Brittany (Email: Salah.Sadou@irisa.fr)
    3. Dr Armstrong Nhlabatsi, KINDI Center for Computing Research, Qatar University (Email: Armstrong.Nhlabatsi@qu.edu.qa)
    4. Dr Jamal El-Hachem, Department of Informatics, University of South Brittany (Email: jamal.el-hachem@univ-ubs.fr)

    Students:

    Publications

    • Cherfa, Imane & Belloir, Nicolas & Sadou, Salah & Fleurquin, Régis & Bennouar, Djamal. (2019). Systems of systems: From mission definition to architecture description. Systems Engineering. 22. 10.1002/sys.21523

    Media & Dates

     

    Dates:

    Start Date: 30-10-2019

    End Date: 30-10-2021

    Funding (if applicable)

    Funded By:

    • International Research Collaboration Co-Funds (IRCC), Project Number IRCC-2019-010

    Collaborating Institution(s)

    • University of South Brittany, France

    Source Code (if applicable)