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Tolerating Individual Failure to Survive

Conference: Verification Futures 2018 (click here to see full programme)
Speaker: Peter Davies, Director – Security Concepts, Thales
Presentation Title: Keynote: Tolerating Individual Failure to Survive
Abstract: This keynote will focus on the need to deploy unfamiliar paradigms to avoid catastrophic failures of the system. In particular that some of our most firmly held V&V beliefs may in fact be the point of weakness against future attackers in a world of continuous baseline evolution. The difference between electromechanical and true digital systems will be discussed in the context of attacks and in particular why attacks against the fully autonomous systems we are moving towards will be more likely to cause the entire ecosystem to fail than to target an individual instance in that system. It will highlight some of the dangers arising from digital monocultures and therefore the importance of avoiding them. Finally it will discuss the use of pattern of life / forensics rather than more traditional some more traditional V&V techniques.

Key topics covered in the keynote will include:

  • Issues with V&V in the traditional sense as we move towards far larger systems that often deliver their effects at scale
  • Handling of complexity wherever it occurs
  • Time taken to do V&V as a factor in broadening the attack surface
  • Need for our V&V processes to take into account and contribute far more fundamentally to avoiding catastrophic failures ie. the how we will fail may well be becoming more important than the fact that we will fail
Speaker Bio: Peter Davies graduated from the University of Wales in 1982 with a B.A. (Hons) in Philosophy and Logic, and an MSc in Computing and Operational Research. He joined Thales e-Security (then Open Computer Security) in 1984. Peter is currently concentrating his efforts on Digital Resilience and Survivability. He has been Involved in the specification and development of many successful large-scale security schemes including credit card and mobile phone. He leads the Security Workstream for the Automotive Electronic Systems Innovation Network (AESIN) and is security lead to AutoDrive and RoboPilot 2 of the UK governments research activities in Autonomous vehicles. Peter is a frequent speaker at international conferences and contributor to journals concerned with Automotive Cyber Security, CNI, Law Enforcement and Commercial security. He is particularly interested in the paradigm shift in security models that must accompany a more connected and less controlled environment.

As a Technical Director of Thales he has been their leading expert on Cryptography in the UK responsible for providing cryptography and information security direction and expertise on a variety of projects and has represented the UK Government overseas in the area of security.
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