Complex systems – whether physical or digital – dominate every aspect of our interconnected daily lives. Combinatorial testing methods have attracted attention as a means of providing high assurance at reduced cost. While they are considered a proven method for software testing, is it possible for these methods to enhance the resilience and security of complex systems?

In this Statistically Speaking, Dimitris Simos takes a leap toward the application of these methods beyond software testing, particularly examining their adaptation to use cases in the automotive industry and supply-chain security. Subsequently, he showcases how combinatorial testing methods can reveal complex software faults and security vulnerabilities by reducing the input space by several orders of magnitude while simultaneously providing minimal size combinatorial test sets.

Best suited for those interested in:

• How the application of combinatorial testing methods can improve security.
• How to use combinatorial testing to reveal software faults and vulnerabilities.
• How to achieve high assurance without compromising resilience and security.

Meet the speaker

Dimitris Simos

Joint Professor of Cybersecurity, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg and Salzburg University of Applied Sciences

Dimitris Simos is a Full Professor with the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg and Senior Lecturer with Salzburg University of Applied Sciences. In July 2025, he became the recipient of the state-funded Joint Professorship in Cybersecurity between both institutions. He is also a Visiting Associate Professor with Graz University of Technology and holds a Guest Researcher appointment with the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

During his career, Simos has (co-)authored more than 150 papers in discrete mathematics and their applications to computational and computer science, where some of his academic recognitions include being named Fellow of the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications (FTICA), receiving the ACA Early Researcher Award (2024), and being nominated for 2025 Houska Prize for the project, “Combinatorial Security Testing," sponsored by Austria’s B&C Private Foundation. He also served as the Austrian Delegate to the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (UN CSTD) in 2024.