A Waterloo Engineering professor was awarded $1.2 million in federal funding to protect Canada’s critical energy infrastructure and energy sector supply chains from cyber threats.
Dr. Sebastian Fischmeister and his research team will use the grant to develop an enhanced cybersecurity system, using a checkpoint technology, that can identify the threats to the supply chains serving the country’s energy sector.
The hardware and firmware integrity system examines and assesses critical energy infrastructure equipment and systems to identify the presence of fraudulent or counterfeit components. In addition, the engineers will search for new ways to guard this vital infrastructure from damaging interference.
Natural Resources Canada is leading federal involvement in the project, with funding from the Canadian Safety and Security Program, led by Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), the science and technology arm of the Department of National Defence (DND). The project also involves Palitronica Inc., a Kitchener-based startup that grew out of Dr. Fischmeister’s lab, the Real-time Embedded Software Group.
“Our goal is to be able to provide recommendations and guidance to the federal and provincial governments and Canadian companies on the best practices that ensure they’re only using safe and secure products in critical Canadian infrastructure,” said Dr. Fischmeister, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Waterloo.
Go to Protecting Canada’s energy infrastructure and supply chain from cyber attacks for the full story.