Dynamical Network Models for Mission Risk Assessment of Emergency Response Systems

The integration of new cyber technologies in emergency response systems can allow profound improvements in system performance, but also expose the systems to systemic security and privacy risks.Thus, there is a critical need for design-time risk-assessment tools for emergency response systems, which allow evaluation and mitigation of threat impacts across their heterogeneous cyber and physical components.Our vision is that state-space network models provide a compelling framework for risk assessment in complex networked cyber-physical systems such as next-generation emergency-response systems, because they can enable counterfactual analysis of vulnerabilities to such systems.In this Phase I effort, we will analyze the feasibility of design-time risk assessment and mitigation in emergency response systems using the state-space network modeling approach, via a full-scale case study.The project has significant potential for commercialization, with customers including regulatory offices for emergency communications at the Department of Homeland Security, 911 call centers and associated local governments, and vendors interested in deploying new technologies into 911 systems.