Cyber Cascade Risk (CCR) Lab

The Cyber Cascade Risk (CCR) Lab is in the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany.

About

The Cyber Cascade Risk (CCR) Lab is in the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany. The CCR Lab focuses on the study of cascading failures in cyber-physical systems, with a mission to explore the "What", “how” and "why" in the realm of cybersecurity and risk management.

What We Do

The CCR Lab is about understanding how things can go wrong in our interconnected digital world. We use combinations of analytical and visual techniques how cyber failures spread through time, space, and various critical infrastructures and industries. Our goal is to help CEHC researchers and students learn how to prevent and manage such failures.

Our Goals

  • Teaching CEHC students about how things can go wrong in the digital world.
  • Working with other research groups to solve problems together.
  • Showing everyone how cybersecurity isn't just about computers, it's about how we all work together to stay safe in the digital world.

Methods

The foundation of our work is Functional Dependency Network Analysis (FDNA), a nodal method used to design and analyze elements of system and of systems-of-systems by highlighting their dependencies. FDNA helps describe complex dependencies in a simpler way to understand how a system works, why it behaves in certain ways, and how failures of its elements can be managed.

Together with modeling and visualization platforms, we conduct analyses of potential cyberattacks and their cascading effects on various industries, including healthcare, banking, transportation, and business by looking at past incidents and projecting them to the future.

Our Team

Researchers and collaborators at CCR Lab have various disciplines and backgrounds, such as engineering, economics, business, library science, information management, computer science, modeling and simulation, and others – both within and outside University at Albany – all forming a synergistic team.

 

Leadership

C. Ariel Pinto
C. Ariel Pinto
Professor, Chair of Cybersecurity Department
College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity; Department of Cybersecurity
[email protected]


Research Assistants

Projects

  • How malware spreads globally
  • How industries may be affected by failure of the internet in varying durations
  • How major power outage can affect a wide geographic area
  • How failure of major cloud service provider can affect various industries
  • How new technologies (5G, IoT, Unmanned Vehicles, etc.) can affect future cyber failures

Attracting External Partnerships

We also want to work with other organizations that are concerned about the last line of defense against cyber problems. This includes:

  • Companies that provide essential services like electricity and water.
  • Planners who prepare for disasters of all kinds.
  • Insurance companies that help protect against cyber issues.
  • People who make rules and decisions about how we stay safe online.

The Cyber Cascade Risk (CCR) Lab at Unıversity at Albany, led by Dr. Ariel Pinto, is dedicated to making the digital and physical world safer by understanding and preventing problems. We invite you to explore our research, collaborate with the team, and join us in our mission to keep the world secure.