CYBER360 – Cybersecurity from Digital Systems to Society and Back University of Pisa

Overview

Digital technologies are evolving at an unprecedented pace. Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, increasingly interconnected devices, and the growing integration of digital and physical infrastructures are creating new opportunities, but also new vulnerabilities and forms of attack. As our societies become ever more dependent on these technologies, the consequences of security failures may affect not only data and services, but also organisations, critical infrastructures, and people’s safety.

In this changing landscape, cybersecurity cannot be treated as an afterthought or reduced to a collection of defensive measures applied once a system has already been developed. It must be considered from the earliest stages of design and grounded in solid scientific principles, rigorous methods, and a thorough understanding of the technologies involved. In other words, security needs to shift left and become an integral part of the way modern systems are conceived, built, and assessed.

This Summer School offers a vertical and multisciplinary perspective on cybersecurity, examining how security issues arise and interact across the different layers of a digital system: from hardware and embedded devices to software, operating systems, networks, and distributed infrastructures. Technical topics are complemented by broader perspectives on risk, regulation, and the organisational and societal contexts in which secure systems must operate. This integrated approach reflects the complementary expertise of the Computer Science Department and of the Information Engineering Department involved in the Summer School.

The programme is designed around a carefully selected set of topics reflecting the breadth of modern cybersecurity, including hardware and embedded security, software and systems security, network and infrastructure security, as well as risk, regulation, and organisational security. By combining scientific foundations and rigorous methods with examples, case studies, and hands-on activities, it will provide a compact but coherent introduction to the field. Rather than attempting to cover individual topics exhaustively, the Summer School will highlight the connections among different areas of cybersecurity and provide participants with the conceptual and methodological tools needed to understand current and emerging challenges.

The teaching staff brings together lecturers from the University of Pisa, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, and the Italian National Research Council (CNR), and potentially invited experts from industry, public administration, and professional practice.

A final assessment is required and will consist of a technical report, based on one of the topics covered during the Summer School and complemented by data, information, or insights drawn from the participant’s own experience. The report topic will be assigned on the final day of the Summer School. The technical report must be submitted by 30 September 2027. Upon successful completion of the assessment, participants will receive a final grade and 6 ECTS.

The Summer School will be activated with at least 10 students. The maximum number of participants is set to 30 students.

The Summer School will be held on campus, in Pisa, at Dipartimento di Informatica (+ Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione), Largo Bruno Pontecorvo, 3.

The program will be activated also in distance learning mode (TEAMS platform).