1st Edition

Cybersecurity of Discrete Event Systems From Smart Attacks to Resilient Defence

By Rong Su Copyright 2025
    290 Pages 105 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    Su's book describes analysis and control against smart cyberattacks in discrete event systems (DES). This book is the first in the DES community to provide a thorough introduction of smart cyberattacks on supervisory control systems modelled by regular languages or finite-state automata.

    “Smart attacks” cannot be detected by the supervisor until an irreversible process towards ensured damage occurs. An attack may be conducted in either the observation channel (i.e., the supervisor’s input of the supervisor) or the command channel (i.e., the supervisor’s output), or both simultaneously. Therefore, defense strategies against these attacks are urgently needed. Su provides a comprehensive overview of the latest theories and includes empirical examples to illustrate concepts and methods. By centering on what information is available and how such information is used, the readers are provided with methods to evaluate cyber vulnerability of a given system and design a resilient supervisor against relevant smart attacks. This book comprises three parts. Firstly, Su introduces the required concepts and techniques related to DES and supervisory control. Secondly, he introduces different types of smart attacks that intercept and manipulate information in sensor and command channels in a standard closed-loop control system. Finally, he presents resilient defense strategies against relevant types of attacks.

    By focusing on conceptual introduction and systematic analysis, this book provides a solid theoretical foundation for future exploration by researchers and graduate students who are interested in cybersecurity research, not necessarily limited to those in the DES community. To illustrate the practical relevance of this research, realistic examples are used throughout the book. Readers are recommended to have a background in formal language theory

    1. Introduction to Cybersecurity in Discrete Event Systems  Part 1: Modeling and Synthesis of Smart Attacks  2. Smart Sensor Attacks  3. Smart Sensor-Actuator Attacks  4. Smart Attacks with Unknown Supervisor  Part 2: Modeling and Synthesis of Resilient Supervisors  5. Resilient Supervisory Control against Smart Sensor Attacks  6. System Vulnerability Analysis via Attack Model Reduction  7. Supervisor Obfuscation against Smart Actuator Attacks

    Biography

    Dr Rong Su is Associate Professor at the School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University. He obtained his Bachelor of Engineering degree from University of Science and Technology of China and Master of Applied Science degree and PhD degree from University of Toronto. Dr Su is a senior member of IEEE, and an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, Automatica (IFAC), Journal of Discrete Event Dynamic Systems, and Journal of Control and Decision. Currently, he is a co-chair of Technical Committee on Automation in Logistics in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. Dr Su is widely published and has received several best paper awards, such as the 2021 Hsue-shen Tsien Paper Award from IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica and the Best Paper Award in the 15th International Conference on Advanced Systems in Public Transport (CASPT2022). He is an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer for IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.

     

    “This book gives an invaluable guide to cybersecurity in discrete event systems, from modeling and synthesis of cyberattacks to design of resilient supervisors. A must-read for researchers and students, this book seamlessly blends resilient supervisors with smart attackers, starting a new and comprehensive approach to one of the most challenge problems in cybersecurity.”

    - Prof Feng Lin, Wayne State University, Fellow of IEEE

     

    “This book provides a timely and systematic analysis for smart attacks and resilience for better cyber security from the perspective of discrete-events and provides excellent theoretical insights on how smart attacks might leverage on existing supervisory control logics to inflict damage to systems without being detected easily, and how such attacks could be prevented by properly designed supervisory controls. Enjoy your reading and digestion of the first, interesting and inspiring monograph on cybersecurity research!”

    - Prof Sam Shuzhi Ge, National University of Singapore, Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of IFAC, Fellow of IET

     

    “This book provides comprehensive coverage of a framework for modelling cyber-attacks and developing defence (as well as attack!) strategies in the context of discrete event systems. Rong Su, who has been working on discrete event systems for more than two decades, provides an elegant description of the recent work of his group on discrete event system cybersecurity. Well motivated and quite thorough exposition, ranging from smart sensor attacks to resilient supervisory control strategies! I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in cybersecurity aspects in finite state dynamic systems.”

    -Prof Christoforos Hadjicostis, University of Cyprus, Fellow of IEEE

     

    “Cybersecurity is no doubt one of the most important subjects and has been affecting everyone on this planet on a daily basis. This book provides a nice introduction to this subject in the framework of discrete event systems (DES), addressing smart cyberattacks and suitable/effective defense techniques against them. It presents mathematically rigorous concepts, methods, and theory as well as many practically useful algorithms for this complex and important subject.  The insights provided in the book are expected to benefit researchers and practitioners not only in the DES community but also in much broader  communities of control, communication, networking and cyber-physical systems. Hence, I highly recommend this book to all who have a genuine interest in cybersecurity.”

    - Prof Mengchu Zhou, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of IFAC, Fellow of AAAS, Fellow of CAA, Fellow of NAI

     

    "This excellent book introduces a comprehensive array of formal approaches essential for cybersecurity analysis and defense, drawing inspiration from the cutting-edge theoretical advancements in discrete event systems."

    - Prof Alessandro Giua, University of Cagliari (Italy), Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of IFAC