Habtamu Abie

Chief Research Scientist
Norwegian Computing Center

Habtamu Abie, PhD, is Chief Research Scientist at the Norwegian Computing Center (NR), where he drives national and international research on adaptive security, anticipatory AI, AI driven cybersecurity, critical infrastructure protection, and secure IT OT integration. He holds B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Oslo.
Dr. Abie’s career spans work within leading research institutions and global technology organizations, including roles as Scientific Associate and Fellow at CERN, researcher at ABB Corporate Research, software engineer at Nera AS and Alcatel Telecom Norway, and Senior Engineer/Research Scientist at Telenor R&D. He has an extensive track record of building large research consortia, securing competitive funding, and leading complex R&D initiatives. He currently serves as IT OT Integration Focus Area Leader at SFI NORCICS, coordinates the European Cluster for Securing Critical Infrastructures (ECSCI)—a collaboration of 71 EU funded projects—and leads the Norwegian Ecosystem for Secure IT OT Integration (NESIOT). He previously managed the ASSET project (2012–2016) and now co leads the CybAlliance project (2023–2028).
Dr. Abie has co edited thirteen books and proceedings and contributed to a wide range of European and national research efforts, including GEMOM, LongRec, SAMPOS, MARIAGE, CORAS, PETWeb, PETWeb II, ASSET, IoTSec, ArsForensica, FINSEC, FAME, ENFIELD, EU CIP, NORCICS, CybAlliance, and ResCri. He also co chairs several international workshops and conferences, among them CPS4CIP, SecASure, SecIndustry, SUNRISE, and CyberHunt.
His research vision focuses on creating resilient, adaptive, and trustworthy digital ecosystems capable of autonomously defending against evolving cyber physical threats. His research spans adaptive security, anticipatory AI, adaptive AI for security, cyber physical systems security, threat hunting, trust and risk management, IoT, 5G and beyond, digital sovereignty, and digital twins, reflecting a broad and influential scientific portfolio. He is a member of EURASC, a Senior Member of IEEE, and a Fellow of AAIA and AIIA, and is ranked among the top 0.5% of scholars worldwide, underscoring his sustained scientific leadership.

Sessions

ECSCI Workshop
Resilience Stress Testing as a Critical Element of Implementation of the European Directive on Critical Entity Resilience
(CER Directive)
The European Directive on Critical Entity Resilience (CER Directive), has entered into force in 2023, became mandatory in the EU in 2024, and, by now, widely adopted as national law and included in national strategies for enhancing resilience of critical entities/infrastructures (CIs). Out of estimated more than 15,000 CIs concerned by CER Directive, several hundred of them are assumed to involve possible cross-border impacts. These cross-border cases will certainly increase the need for resilience benchmarking and stress testing, as metrics and processes for quantifying cross-functional and cross-border interdependencies still need to be developed and be agreed upon.
The workshop will, therefore, focus on ongoing efforts to develop the relevant, consensus-based guidelines, including those related to the common stress testing framework, agreed stress testing procedures, resilience measurement and its use in stress testing, and providing and promoting samples of good stress testing practice in the relevant stress testing application cases/scenarios.
Examples of the real-life scenarios are abundantly provided in the current geopolitical and economic risk landscape, such as extreme threats (XTs), polycrises and issues related to the critical supply chains. Networks and associations can and should play a pivotal role in both the co-development and acceptance of the above guidelines. The workshop will, therefore, explore practical approaches for co-designing, agreeing upon and aligning of the common resilience stress testing guidelines, focussing on the EU level, where the European Cluster for Securing Critical Infrastructures (ECSCI, https://www.ecsci.eu), which brings together 71 projects focused on critical infrastructure resilience, has already established itself as a key stakeholder actor in this context. This workshop will be part of and contribute to this broader ECSCI context.
The Workshop is organized in cooperation with IARA – International Association for Resilience Analysis.
Tentative list of topics to be considered for the short presentations & and the panel:
1. EU: Current status and scientific and technical challenges of the CER implementation
2. Implementation at the National level (Germany, France, Italy…)
3. Role of cluster, networks and associations at the EU level
4. How the EU resilience strass testing setup could look like (ENISA, NIS2, CER, DRS …)?
5. Relevant international efforts (ISO, OECD, IARA, UK, USA, Australia, China, Canada…)
6. Discussion
• How to ensure that all the eleven CER sectors of the CIs achieve the same maturity as the cyber/IT sector?
• What kind of support (actions, supporting documents, events…) is needed for successful resilience stress testing?
• What kind of interaction is needed? Interaction with the Commission? What kind interaction with regulatory and implementation authorities (e.g., the CER Competent Authorities in the EU)?
• What can be shared as good practice internationally (US, Canada, Australia…)?
• Relevant issues for particular stakeholders’ groups? Insurance? PPP?
• Other relevant issues?
Organizers:
• Prof. Aleksandar JOVANOVIC, CEO, Steinbeis European Risk & Resilience Institute (EU-VRi), Germany
• Dr. Habtamu ABIE, ECSCI Chair, Chief Research Scientist, Norwegian Computing Center (NRS), Norway
• Prof. Igor LINKOV, Founding President, International Association for Resilience Analysis (IARA), USA