UNIVERSITY HABILITATION of Faouzi JAIDI

Doctorate thesis defense on June 23^rd 2026 at 09H00 AM ,in Amphitheater Ibn Khaldoun, SUP'COM 2.

Entitled: Advanced Security for Critical Systems: Challenges, Solutions and Opportunities.

Presented by: Faouzi JAIDI

Committee Members:

Abstract:

Advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), in the 21st century, bring out novel connecting technologies (such as 5/6G, SDN/NFV, etc.), computing capacities (like edge-fog-social-cloud-quantum computing, big-data analytics, etc.) and paradigms (for instance Internet-of-Things, Artificial Intelligence, Smart Cities, etc.). ICT developments have different applications to critical domains. Smart e-health, smart cities, intelligent transportation system (ITS) and modern programmable network-based systems are among main application fields that relies on ICT to enhance the safety, efficiency, and sustainability of their critical services. More, the successful integration of Internet-of-Things (IoT) into critical systems has generated huge interest to improve their performance, resilience, operational efficiency, responsiveness and decision-making. IoT-enabled smart cities, Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)-based applications are among the major trends of the moment. Several sensors and diverse medical devices connect with IoT to afford a diversity of services and applications to improve healthcare and urban infrastructures.

Regardless of their expansion and technical advances, protecting sensitive data, preserving user's privacy and managing cyber-risks are major challenges for critical systems and infrastructures that require new suitable solutions to handle the issue. Unauthorized access to massive amounts of patients’ sensitive data (like medical or personal records) is one of disputed examples of healthcare security issues. Hijacking attacks on medical devices or hospital networks attacks are other examples of life-threatening or malicious activities that might take place. Resource-constrained IoT devices lacking robust security measures are attractive targets for attackers seeking to exploit increasing weaknesses and vulnerabilities to disrupt the functioning of critical urban infrastructure and services like energy, transportation, and emergency response. ITS face significant security and privacy issues. Cyber-attacks, exploiting vulnerabilities in connected devices, can be launched through physical, software and network exploits and may result to potential consequences ranging from incorrect traffic management to vehicle malfunction. Even programmable networks, Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), provide agility and scalability to critical infrastructures, they introduce new risks like misconfiguration issues, routing anomalies, software vulnerabilities, etc.

To address these threats and risks, researchers are focusing on further research works towards effective solutions. From this perspective, the current thesis presents a summary of our research activities and main contributions towards advanced security for critical systems and infrastructures. To effectively deal with this thematic, we discuss at first the role of ICT advancements in the development of modern solutions towards smart critical systems and infrastructures. We delve into the prospects of the following critical systems: smart e-health, smart city, ITS, and SDN/NFV systems as main cases of study and discuss associated benefits and challenges. A special focus is then given to security issues to discuss associated cyber-risks and threats. Then, we introduce our main research projects and applications to deal with the discussed issues. Our security solutions rely mainly on formal methods and artificial intelligence techniques (machine and deep learning) to efficiently: (i) enhance the conformity and the integrity of security policies; (ii) improve firewalls filtering capacities; (iii) detect security incidents (anomalies, misconfigurations and cyber-attacks); (iv) assess and manage devices as well as end-to-end cyber-risks; (v) track and localize the sources of cyber-attacks; and (vi) mitigate cyber-threats. Our research works advances the state of the art by bridging the gap between traditional security techniques and intelligent solutions tailored to critical environments. Lastly, we map out potential future directions and critically analyze strategic opportunities arising from this research and promising avenues for future research activities.

Keywords:

Critical Systems Security; Cyber-Security; Risk Management; Smart e-Health and Cities Security; IoT/IoMT/ITS/SDN/NFV Security; Access Control and Privacy.