Rising Star: Gilberto Castro

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While pursuing his master’s degree in technology management at Georgetown University, Gilberto Castro began working on a project to synthesize a handful of cybersecurity metrics from the public and private sectors and customize them for industrial control systems and supervisory control and data acquisitionsystems.

“He wants to be involved in [solving] big problems,” said Maria Trujillo, a faculty director and associate professor at Georgetown.

Castro used preexisting tools — including the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Security Evaluation Tool, the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework andthe DREAD risk assessment model created by Microsoft — to develop a cumulative risk score that provides a repeatable methodology for more effectively assessing the cybersecurity of ICS and SCADA systems.

Presentations based on his research were accepted at events sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories and George Mason University, and his findings have generated interest from DHS and Mitre. And Castro, who is from Brazil and the first member of his family to attend college, completed his project while working full-time and raising two children.

Trujillo pointed out that Castro quickly picked up the necessary technical and teamwork skills after being exposed to American technology and business. “I think he will go far,” she said. “He embodies the [American] dream, and he’s proven to be successful at it.”