“Rollerama” roller rink opens in Kendall Square

The former U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Volpe Center site — now named “Kendall Common” in anticipation of its transformation into a vibrant mixed-use development — is now activated and open to all this summer. “Rollerama at Kendall Common” offers free roller-skating and roller skate rentals, community programming, and family-friendly events through September.

“We are extremely excited to bring Kendall Common to life in a way that is inviting and authentically Cambridge, while channeling MIT’s spirit of innovation throughout the project,” says Patrick Rowe, senior vice president, MIT Investment Management Co. “This parcel of land — right in the heart of Kendall Square — has been closed off to local residents and visitors for far too long, and we look forward to opening it up and making it accessible for all to utilize and enjoy.”

Located at the corner of Broadway and Third Street, Rollerama offers specialty themed skating nights and live entertainment, as well as food and beverage from local restaurants for purchase. Optional skate rental donations will be directed to local nonprofits. A highlight of the space is a new 7,000 square foot mural by Boston-based artist Massiel Grullón featuring retro-inspired shapes.

The first of two opening weekends took place June 28-30; the next one will be July 5-7 from 2-8 p.m. on Fridays, and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. From July 10 through Sept. 29, Rollerama will be open Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 2-8 p.m., and on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“We’re delighted to see this underutilized space activated with vibrant and playful programming,” says Jess Smith, director of MIT Open Space Programming. “Rollerama will add to the energy of Kendall Square and provide yet another compelling reason for employees, residents, students, and visitors to mix and mingle here. With food and drink available from Cambridge partners and voluntary donations going to Cambridge nonprofits, these activities in Kendall Common will contribute significantly to the sense of community in Kendall.”

The activation of Kendall Common will complement other new additions MIT has recently brought to the Kendall Square neighborhood, including Ripple Café, Row 34, Life Alive Café, Locke Bar, and Flat Top Johnny’s, along with the MIT Museum and MIT Press Book Store.

MIT assumed ownership of 10 acres of the former U.S. DOT Volpe Center site in Kendall Square earlier this year, and will commence infrastructure and site preparation for the redevelopment this fall. Over the coming years, MIT aims to transform Kendall Common into a vibrant, mixed-use development that will strengthen connections in the Cambridge community through new open green spaces, housing, retail offerings, restaurants, a community center, and science and innovation facilities.

Kendall Common will eventually include four residential buildings, four commercial buildings, four parks and a community center. Designed to be an inclusive and equitable urban environment with a focus on sustainability, the development is intended to nurture and inspire the local community.

For more information visit the Kendall Common website, Instagram page, and Facebook page.

A prosthesis driven by the nervous system helps people with amputation walk naturally

State-of-the-art prosthetic limbs can help people with amputations achieve a natural walking gait, but they don’t give the user full neural control over the limb. Instead, they rely on robotic sensors and controllers that move the limb using predefined gait algorithms.

Using a new type of surgical intervention and neuroprosthetic interface, MIT researchers, in collaboration with colleagues from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, have shown that a natural walking gait is achievable using a prosthetic leg fully driven by the body’s own nervous system. The surgical amputation procedure reconnects muscles in the residual limb, which allows patients to receive “proprioceptive” feedback about where their prosthetic limb is in space.

In a study of seven patients who had this surgery, the MIT team found that they were able to walk faster, avoid obstacles, and climb stairs much more naturally than people with a traditional amputation.

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“This is the first prosthetic study in history that shows a leg prosthesis under full neural modulation, where a biomimetic gait emerges. No one has been able to show this level of brain control that produces a natural gait, where the human’s nervous system is controlling the movement, not a robotic control algorithm,” says Hugh Herr, a professor of media arts and sciences, co-director of the K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics at MIT, an associate member of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and the senior author of the new study.

Patients also experienced less pain and less muscle atrophy following this surgery, which is known as the agonist-antagonist myoneural interface (AMI). So far, about 60 patients around the world have received this type of surgery, which can also be done for people with arm amputations.

Hyungeun Song, a postdoc in MIT’s Media Lab, is the lead author of the paper, which appears today in Nature Medicine.

Sensory feedback

Most limb movement is controlled by pairs of muscles that take turns stretching and contracting. During a traditional below-the-knee amputation, the interactions of these paired muscles are disrupted. This makes it very difficult for the nervous system to sense the position of a muscle and how fast it’s contracting — sensory information that is critical for the brain to decide how to move the limb.

People with this kind of amputation may have trouble controlling their prosthetic limb because they can’t accurately sense where the limb is in space. Instead, they rely on robotic controllers built into the prosthetic limb. These limbs also include sensors that can detect and adjust to slopes and obstacles.

To try to help people achieve a natural gait under full nervous system control, Herr and his colleagues began developing the AMI surgery several years ago. Instead of severing natural agonist-antagonist muscle interactions, they connect the two ends of the muscles so that they still dynamically communicate with each other within the residual limb. This surgery can be done during a primary amputation, or the muscles can be reconnected after the initial amputation as part of a revision procedure.

“With the AMI amputation procedure, to the greatest extent possible, we attempt to connect native agonists to native antagonists in a physiological way so that after amputation, a person can move their full phantom limb with physiologic levels of proprioception and range of movement,” Herr says.

In a 2021 study, Herr’s lab found that patients who had this surgery were able to more precisely control the muscles of their amputated limb, and that those muscles produced electrical signals similar to those from their intact limb.

After those encouraging results, the researchers set out to explore whether those electrical signals could generate commands for a prosthetic limb and at the same time give the user feedback about the limb’s position in space. The person wearing the prosthetic limb could then use that proprioceptive feedback to volitionally adjust their gait as needed.

In the new Nature Medicine study, the MIT team found this sensory feedback did indeed translate into a smooth, near-natural ability to walk and navigate obstacles.

“Because of the AMI neuroprosthetic interface, we were able to boost that neural signaling, preserving as much as we could. This was able to restore a person’s neural capability to continuously and directly control the full gait, across different walking speeds, stairs, slopes, even going over obstacles,” Song says.

A natural gait

For this study, the researchers compared seven people who had the AMI surgery with seven who had traditional below-the-knee amputations. All of the subjects used the same type of bionic limb: a prosthesis with a powered ankle as well as electrodes that can sense electromyography (EMG) signals from the tibialis anterior the gastrocnemius muscles. These signals are fed into a robotic controller that helps the prosthesis calculate how much to bend the ankle, how much torque to apply, or how much power to deliver.

The researchers tested the subjects in several different situations: level-ground walking across a 10-meter pathway, walking up a slope, walking down a ramp, walking up and down stairs, and walking on a level surface while avoiding obstacles.

In all of these tasks, the people with the AMI neuroprosthetic interface were able to walk faster — at about the same rate as people without amputations — and navigate around obstacles more easily. They also showed more natural movements, such as pointing the toes of the prosthesis upward while going up stairs or stepping over an obstacle, and they were better able to coordinate the movements of their prosthetic limb and their intact limb. They were also able to push off the ground with the same amount of force as someone without an amputation.

“With the AMI cohort, we saw natural biomimetic behaviors emerge,” Herr says. “The cohort that didn’t have the AMI, they were able to walk, but the prosthetic movements weren’t natural, and their movements were generally slower.”

These natural behaviors emerged even though the amount of sensory feedback provided by the AMI was less than 20 percent of what would normally be received in people without an amputation.

“One of the main findings here is that a small increase in neural feedback from your amputated limb can restore significant bionic neural controllability, to a point where you allow people to directly neurally control the speed of walking, adapt to different terrain, and avoid obstacles,” Song says.

“This work represents yet another step in us demonstrating what is possible in terms of restoring function in patients who suffer from severe limb injury. It is through collaborative efforts such as this that we are able to make transformational progress in patient care,” says Matthew Carty, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, who is also an author of the paper.

Enabling neural control by the person using the limb is a step toward Herr’s lab’s goal of “rebuilding human bodies,” rather than having people rely on ever more sophisticated robotic controllers and sensors — tools that are powerful but do not feel like part of the user’s body.

“The problem with that long-term approach is that the user would never feel embodied with their prosthesis. They would never view the prosthesis as part of their body, part of self,” Herr says. “The approach we’re taking is trying to comprehensively connect the brain of the human to the electromechanics.”

The research was funded by the MIT K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Scientists observe record-setting electron mobility in a new crystal film

A material with a high electron mobility is like a highway without traffic. Any electrons that flow into the material experience a commuter’s dream, breezing through without any obstacles or congestion to slow or scatter them off their path.

The higher a material’s electron mobility, the more efficient its electrical conductivity, and the less energy is lost or wasted as electrons zip through. Advanced materials that exhibit high electron mobility will be essential for more efficient and sustainable electronic devices that can do more work with less power.

Now, physicists at MIT, the Army Research Lab, and elsewhere have achieved a record-setting level of electron mobility in a thin film of ternary tetradymite — a class of mineral that is naturally found in deep hydrothermal deposits of gold and quartz.

For this study, the scientists grew pure, ultrathin films of the material, in a way that minimized defects in its crystalline structure. They found that this nearly perfect film — much thinner than a human hair — exhibits the highest electron mobility in its class.

The team was able to estimate the material’s electron mobility by detecting quantum oscillations when electric current passes through. These oscillations are a signature of the quantum mechanical behavior of electrons in a material. The researchers detected a particular rhythm of oscillations that is characteristic of high electron mobility — higher than any ternary thin films of this class to date.

“Before, what people had achieved in terms of electron mobility in these systems was like traffic on a road under construction — you’re backed up, you can’t drive, it’s dusty, and it’s a mess,” says Jagadeesh Moodera, a senior research scientist in MIT’s Department of Physics. “In this newly optimized material, it’s like driving on the Mass Pike with no traffic.”

The team’s results, which appear today in the journal Materials Today Physics, point to ternary tetradymite thin films as a promising material for future electronics, such as wearable thermoelectric devices that efficiently convert waste heat into electricity. (Tetradymites are the active materials that cause the cooling effect in commercial thermoelectric coolers.) The material could also be the basis for spintronic devices, which process information using an electron’s spin, using far less power than conventional silicon-based devices.

The study also uses quantum oscillations as a highly effective tool for measuring a material’s electronic performance.

“We are using this oscillation as a rapid test kit,” says study author Hang Chi, a former research scientist at MIT who is now at the University of Ottawa. “By studying this delicate quantum dance of electrons, scientists can start to understand and identify new materials for the next generation of technologies that will power our world.”

Chi and Moodera’s co-authors include Patrick Taylor, formerly of MIT Lincoln Laboratory, along with Owen Vail and Harry Hier of the Army Research Lab, and Brandi Wooten and Joseph Heremans of Ohio State University.

Beam down

The name “tetradymite” derives from the Greek “tetra” for “four,” and “dymite,” meaning “twin.” Both terms describe the mineral’s crystal structure, which consists of rhombohedral crystals that are “twinned” in groups of four — i.e. they have identical crystal structures that share a side.

Tetradymites comprise combinations of bismuth, antimony tellurium, sulfur, and selenium. In the 1950s, scientists found that tetradymites exhibit semiconducting properties that could be ideal for thermoelectric applications: The mineral in its bulk crystal form was able to passively convert heat into electricity.

Then, in the 1990s, the late Institute Professor Mildred Dresselhaus proposed that the mineral’s thermoelectric properties might be significantly enhanced, not in its bulk form but within its microscopic, nanometer-scale surface, where the interactions of electrons is more pronounced. (Heremans happened to work in Dresselhaus’ group at the time.)

“It became clear that when you look at this material long enough and close enough, new things will happen,” Chi says. “This material was identified as a topological insulator, where scientists could see very interesting phenomena on their surface. But to keep uncovering new things, we have to master the material growth.”

To grow thin films of pure crystal, the researchers employed molecular beam epitaxy — a method by which a beam of molecules is fired at a substrate, typically in a vacuum, and with precisely controlled temperatures. When the molecules deposit on the substrate, they condense and build up slowly, one atomic layer at a time. By controlling the timing and type of molecules deposited, scientists can grow ultrathin crystal films in exact configurations, with few if any defects.

“Normally, bismuth and tellurium can interchange their position, which creates defects in the crystal,” co-author Taylor explains. “The system we used to grow these films came down with me from MIT Lincoln Laboratory, where we use high purity materials to minimize impurities to undetectable limits. It is the perfect tool to explore this research.”

Free flow

The team grew thin films of ternary tetradymite, each about 100 nanometers thin. They then tested the film’s electronic properties by looking for Shubnikov-de Haas quantum oscillations — a phenomenon that was discovered by physicists Lev Shubnikov and Wander de Haas, who found that a material’s electrical conductivity can oscillate when exposed to a strong magnetic field at low temperatures. This effect occurs because the material’s electrons fill up specific energy levels that shift as the magnetic field changes.

Such quantum oscillations could serve as a signature of a material’s electronic structure, and the ways in which electrons behave and interact. Most notably for the MIT team, the oscillations could determine a material’s electron mobility: If oscillations exist, it must mean that the material’s electrical resistance is able to change, and by inference, electrons can be mobile, and made to easily flow.

The team looked for signs of quantum oscillations in their new films, by first exposing them to ultracold temperatures and a strong magnetic field, then running an electric current through the film and measuring the voltage along its path, as they tuned the magnetic field up and down.

“It turns out, to our great joy and excitement, that the material’s electrical resistance oscillates,” Chi says. “Immediately, that tells you that this has very high electron mobility.”

Specifically, the team estimates that the ternary tetradymite thin film exhibits an electron mobility of 10,000 cm2/V-s — the highest mobility of any ternary tetradymite film yet measured. The team suspects that the film’s record mobility has something to do with its low defects and impurities, which they were able to minimize with their precise growth strategies. The fewer a material’s defects, the fewer obstacles an electron encounters, and the more freely it can flow.

“This is showing it’s possible to go a giant step further, when properly controlling these complex systems,” Moodera says. “This tells us we’re in the right direction, and we have the right system to proceed further, to keep perfecting this material down to even much thinner films and proximity coupling for use in future spintronics and wearable thermoelectric devices.”

This research was supported in part by the Army Research Office, National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, Canada Research Chairs Program and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

EU probes Microsoft-OpenAI and Google-Samsung AI deals

The European Union has intensified its antitrust scrutiny on AI deals, starting with high-profile collaborations between Microsoft-OpenAI and Google-Samsung. Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s executive vice president for competition policy, warned that AI is “developing at breakneck speed” and revealed that multiple preliminary investigations are underway…

Why Fixing Websites Is a Growth Opportunity for Freelancers

For years, freelance web designers have been encouraged to book new projects. It’s how I built my business. I’m betting that many more have done the same.

There’s great appeal in building a new website. It’s a chance for a fresh start. You can use the best tools for the job. The experience is even better if you are unencumbered with technical debt.

It can also be a lucrative business – but there are challenges. You’ll need to book clients with a sizeable budget. You’ll also need to find a way to stand out among competitors. That’s one path to success.

There are other ways to make money, though. The growing complexity of the web creates a different opportunity for web designers.

Think of all the websites out there. Consider how many of them are “broken” or poorly maintained. An enterprising freelancer could train their focus on these clients.

Let’s examine the pros and cons of fixing websites.

An Opportunity Years in the Making

There is no shortage of virtual fixer-uppers. You don’t have to look far to see outdated and neglected websites. But why?

I believe much of it stems from content management systems (CMS). Tools like WordPress offer plenty of possibilities for a great website. However, they also require education and commitment.

Sometimes, an entrepreneur may attempt to build it themselves. But, they will soon find that they’re in over their head. Or they don’t know the ingredients of a stable and performant site.

Even those who hire a web professional can run into problems. That web designer may have done a terrific job. However, they may not have communicated the importance of maintenance.

Continued care is required to keep things running smoothly. Outdated themes, plugins, and core software will turn any site into a bucket of bolts.

Website owners aren’t likely to call for help until something is wrong. It appears to be a common issue these days.

There is no shortage of websites in need of some repair.

I’m Not a Hero – Just a Web Designer

Longtime freelancers know the drill. You receive an email from a panicked website owner. They’re not a client. However, their site has crashed, been hacked – or maybe both. They need to get it fixed right away.

How do you respond? It’s easier to say “no” if you’re busy. Perhaps you have enough clients. But if not?

There’s an opportunity to play the part of hero. It’s also a chance to make money and establish a relationship.

Fixing this person’s site could lead to bigger things. Since you have their attention, you can use that time to make recommendations.

For example, their site may have other issues that need fixing. Things like accessibility and security could be lacking. Maybe they need a complete overhaul.

Helping a client in a difficult situation can create trust. It may be just the motivation they need to level up. You have a chance to guide them in the right direction.

Website repair is a way to establish new client relationships.

What’s Lurking Inside That Website?

Website rehabilitation is not without risk. What you see on the surface is one thing. What lies beneath is another.

It’s among the downsides of inheriting a website. You’re stepping into uncharted territory. That often leads you down the proverbial rabbit hole.

Maybe the site was built using unfamiliar tools. Or it’s so riddled with malware that you can’t find the root cause. These issues aren’t for the faint of heart.

There are also questions about the client. How did their website get into this state? Did they have a poor relationship with their last designer? Did they pay their bills on time?

Sure, people can change. But you’ll want to find out why their site is in disrepair. You may find some red flags that scream, “Stay away!”

Perhaps this is the biggest hurdle for freelancers. The willingness to accept risk and dive in headfirst are musts. Not everyone will have the stomach for it.

Pricing is also a concern. Estimating the cost of a fix isn’t easy. So, develop a formula that protects you from taking a loss on a messy site.

You won't know the depth of a website's problems until you investigate.

Is This the Right Path for You?

Website maintenance services are popping up all over the place. They often consist of teams of developers ready to get to work. There’s a good reason for it. The market needs experts who can turn online garbage into gold.

It’s not as simple a path for freelancers, though. You’ll have to weigh the potential benefits against the drawbacks.

Signing up for these types of projects may take away from other opportunities. But they could be a steady source of revenue. You might also turn them into yearly maintenance clients. And you’ll also be in line to handle the inevitable redesign.

Still, looking at broken websites all day isn’t for everyone. The remediation process can be stressful. Meanwhile, clients are waiting with bated breath for a solution.

There’s plenty of business for those interested in this type of work. It’s unlikely to go away any time soon, as the way we build modern websites almost guarantees it.

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10 daunting cyber physical attacks (and proactive mitigations) – CyberTalk

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Cyber physical attacks, which weaponize computer code to cause physical disruption or destruction, represent a growing threat, worldwide. These types of attacks tend to target water treatment facilities, power plants, transportation services, and other digitally connected, critical infrastructure-related segments of our society.

Years ago, cyber systems and physical systems had little-to-no interconnectivity. However, in recent years, internet-based systems have been employed, at-scale, to control physical systems and objects. Emergent cyber physical systems have sensors, computational capacities, real-time monitoring options, and automated components, among other (fancy and useful) things.

Experts have expressed concern around how AI could result in an era rife with cyber physical attacks. With greater technological advancement comes greater responsibility, one could argue. The challenge, at present, is that we’ve largely under-allocated resources to the protection of cyber physical systems. A rich discussion of cyber physical attack types and prevention modalities is to follow…

10 daunting cyber physical attacks (and proactive mitigations)

1. Water treatment facility threats. Cyber physical attacks on water treatment plants and systems are increasing and growing increasingly severe. Threats include potential contamination with deadly agents, as nearly occurred in the Oldsmar water treatment plant attack. Water treatment facilities, at least, in the U.S., have been notoriously slow to adopt adequate cyber security measures.

Mitigations: Experts broadly recommend that the water sector implement a multi-layered approach to cyber security. This includes rigorous network segmentation to isolate OT systems from IT networks, employing multi-factor authentication, monitoring network traffic and system logs, along with training staff around cyber security best practices.

2. Threats to industrial machinery. Although these threats have not appeared as frequently as water treatment facility threats, some of the world’s most sophisticated cyber criminals can target construction sites.

White hat researchers have proven that cyber criminals can potentially manipulate excavators, cranes, scrapers and other large pieces of machinery. Five years ago, Forbes noted that in the context of cyber security research, “cranes were hopelessly vulnerable.” Patches and work-arounds have been released, however some flaws may continue to persist.

Mitigations: To prevent cyber physical attacks on industrial machinery located in or near active construction sites, cyber security professionals should pursue a comprehensive cyber security strategy – with both technical and procedural elements. Products with integrated AI security, like this, can help.

3. Power plant threats/the grid. As the world moves towards smart grid technology, cyber physical attacks on such systems are growing in frequency and sophistication. And artificial intelligence can make the development and launch of these attacks even easier than ever before, according to experts.

Mitigations: One of the greatest challenges around power plant threats is actually lack of knowledge surrounding mitigation. Organizations need to ensure that all default passwords in systems have been changed to unique passwords. They also need to patch systems to the latest patch level. It’s also important to decommission unused systems. Employees need to remain aware of social media and social engineering threats. Contractors need to be held to high security standards…etc. The U.S. government’s comprehensive analyses and recommendations can be found here.

4. Transportation system threats. Transportation systems move millions of people and products across countries and continents everyday. Cyber physical attacks that target transport systems have the potential to slow down or stop the supply chain, preventing people from accessing essential, life-sustaining resources.

Mitigations: One issue within the transportation sector is the historic lack of resources devoted to cyber security and cyber physical threats. But as different transportation sub-sectors become increasingly connected, improved funding, comprehensive cyber security strategies and collaborative efforts will become essential.

5. Autonomous vehicle threats. Self-driving cars and trucks rely on a complex web of network sensors, AI algorithms and communication systems; potential targets for cyber physical attacks. Key vulnerabilities include sensor spoofing, exploitation of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, and malicious interference with AI decision-making systems, among other things.

In 2023, researchers demonstrated the ability to upend an autonomous vehicle’s driving abilities after placing stickers on road signs. This kind of trickery (or sabotage) can lead to misinterpreted traffic signals or misunderstood road conditions.

Mitigations: Explore this expert interview pertaining to connected vehicle cyber security mitigations. In addition, this EV cyber security risks and best practices article may be of interest.

6. Smart building system threats. While building-based attacks are rare at the moment, building system attacks are poised to become a serious problem. It’s not worth waiting for a catastrophe before taking action.

Modern buildings often have interconnected HVAC, lighting, access control and elevator systems – all of which are indeed vulnerable to cyber physical attacks, unless properly secured.

Mitigations: Cyber security professionals should first familiarize themselves with the inherent management system and its built-in security features (basics, right?).

Subsequently, professionals may wish to implement network segmentation. Systems should be regularly patched and updated. Security assessments at regular intervals are a must. In addition, implement strong access controls, like least privileged access, and monitor for anomalous behavior.

7. Manufacturing facility threats. Within manufacturing environments, Industry 4.0 has led to heightened levels of connectivity. On this account, cyber physical attacks could disrupt production, compromise product quality and/or crush profits. Operational adaptations, such as remote work adoption, have also increased the risks of cyber physical attacks in this sector.

Mitigations: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency recommends developing both a long-term and multi-faceted cyber security strategy. Manufacturing organizations are also advised to invest in training for both security analysts and those who are working on the ‘shop floor’. Those on-site should maintain cyber security and operational knowledge. Partnerships between production staff and security analysts should be facilitated and aligned with the organization’s risk tolerance.

8. Healthcare device threats. Cyber criminals have been known to target hospital-based IoT systems, implantable IoT systems, and personal wearable devices (like smartwatches).

To highlight the magnitude of implantable IoT security challenges, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, an American neurosurgeon, noted that former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney’s heart defibrillator had to be monitored ahead of implantation to avoid potential cyber physical terrorist attacks.

Mitigations: Because the healthcare cyber physical attack landscape is so varied, it’s tough to summarize mitigations in a single paragraph. For hospital-focused threat prevention insights, click here. For medical IoT (IoMT) cyber security insights, see our Buyer’s Guide.

9. Drone system threats. The proliferation of commercial drones has created the potential for cyber physical attacks of new varieties. We’re not talking about flying pizza that fails to land…Drone threats could result in disruptions to critical national infrastructure and could lead to public safety concerns.

Mitigations: Enterprises that leverage drones are advised to encrypt drone communication technologies. They should also deploy anti-spoofing and anti-jamming technologies. Beyond that, experts suggest establishing real-time monitoring capabilities for drone fleets with automated anomaly detection. These reflect just a handful of the cyber security tactics that can be put into place.

10. Quantum computing threats. While technology isn’t quite there yet, quantum computing may present a threat to cyber physical systems by making it possible for adversaries to break encryption methods used for sensitive data.

In turn, cyber criminals may be able to gain access to industrial control systems or other sensitive cyber infrastructure that could be used to incite physical damage.

Mitigations: Organizations may wish to focus on hiring talent that is familiar with quantum computing security. In addition or alternatively, organizations may want to participate in the development of quantum security standards, and help to establish best practices. As quantum technology evolves, stay informed.

Summary

To effectively prevent cyber physical attacks, organizations need to fully understand their own ecosystems; both digital and physical assets.

Comprehensive visibility into systems will enable organizations to prioritize risk mitigation efforts, allocate resources more effectively, and develop targeted strategies that address the most critical weaknesses in cyber physical infrastructure.

Also worth mentioning: A cyber physical security approach should also extend beyond internal systems as to include third-party vendors and supply chain partners.

For more on cyber physical attacks, click here. Lastly, to receive cyber security thought leadership articles, groundbreaking research and emerging threat analyses each week, subscribe to the CyberTalk.org newsletter.