Person

# Biography

(LinkedIn bio) A licensed professional engineer, with several years of experience in the Canadian nuclear industry, both in the field as a technical lead for reactor inspection and maintenance as well as in the design and analysis of critical components, such as steam generators and heat exchangers. 

After completing graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), I joined MIT's Sloan School of Management as a Research Scientist where I am developing system-theoretic methods to identify cyber-vulnerabilities and mitigation strategies to protect complex critical infrastructure systems. 

My skills and research interests include Cybersecurity of Cyber-physical systems, Complex System Design and System Dynamics, Agent-based modelling, Organizational Leadership, Game-theory, Operations Research, Value-based decision analysis and Tradespace development.

Biography

Shaharyar Khan

Recent world events and geopolitics have brought the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to cyberattacks to the forefront. While there has been considerable attention to attacks on Information Technology (IT) systems, the vulnerabilities and dangers posed by industrial control systems (ICS) have received significantly less attention. In this paper, we present a holistic, integrated safety and security analysis, we call Cybersafety, for one such industrial system – an industrial chiller plant – as an example. In this analysis, we identify vulnerabilities emerging from interactions between technology, operator actions as well as organizational structure, and provide recommendations to mitigate resulting loss scenarios in a systematic manner.

Protecting Chiller Systems from Cyberattack using a Systems Thinking Approach

Abstract-- Physical control systems are increasingly controlled by reconfigurable, network-enabled devices to increase flexibility and ease commissioning and maintenance. Such capability creates vulnerabilities. Devices may be remotely reprogrammed by a malicious actor to act in unintended ways, causing physical damage to mechanical equipment, infrastructure, and life and limb. In this paper, past examples of actual damage to cyber- physical systems are shown, threats posed by software-controlled Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) are analyzed, and a small-scale version of an attack on ubiquitous VFD equipment is demonstrated.

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Shaharyar Khan

Biography

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