Towards In-Transit Analytics for Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0, or Digital Manufacturing, is a vision of inter-connected services to facilitate innovation in the manufacturing sector. A fundamental requirement of innovation is the ability to be able to visualise manufacturing data, in order to discover new insight for increased competitive advantage. This article describes the enabling technologies that facilitate In-Transit Analytics, which is a necessary precursor for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) visualisation.Comment: 8 pages, 10th IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things (iThings-2017), Exeter, UK, 201

Cybersecurity of Industrial Cyber-Physical Systems: A Review

Industrial cyber-physical systems (ICPSs) manage critical infrastructures by controlling the processes based on the "physics" data gathered by edge sensor networks. Recent innovations in ubiquitous computing and communication technologies have prompted the rapid integration of highly interconnected systems to ICPSs. Hence, the "security by obscurity" principle provided by air-gapping is no longer followed. As the interconnectivity in ICPSs increases, so does the attack surface. Industrial vulnerability assessment reports have shown that a variety of new vulnerabilities have occurred due to this transition while the most common ones are related to weak boundary protection. Although there are existing surveys in this context, very little is mentioned regarding these reports. This paper bridges this gap by defining and reviewing ICPSs from a cybersecurity perspective. In particular, multi-dimensional adaptive attack taxonomy is presented and utilized for evaluating real-life ICPS cyber incidents. We also identify the general shortcomings and highlight the points that cause a gap in existing literature while defining future research directions.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figure

Guest Editorial Special Issue on: Big Data Analytics in Intelligent Systems

The amount of information that is being created, every day, is quickly growing. As such, it is now more common than ever to deal with extremely large datasets. As systems develop and become more intelligent and adaptive, analysing their behaviour is a challenge. The heterogeneity, volume and speed of data generation are increasing rapidly. This is further exacerbated by the use of wireless networks, sensors, smartphones and the Internet. Such systems are capable of generating a phenomenal amount of information and the need to analyse their behaviour, to detect security anomalies or predict future demands for example, is becoming harder. Furthermore, securing such systems is a challenge. As threats evolve, so should security measures develop and adopt increasingly intelligent security techniques. Adaptive systems must be employed and existing methods built upon to provide well-structured defence in depth. Despite the clear need to develop effective protection methods, the task is a difficult one, as there are significant weaknesses in the existing security currently in place. Consequently, this special issue of the Journal of Computer Sciences and Applications discusses big data analytics in intelligent systems. The specific topics of discussion include the Internet of Things, Web Services, Cloud Computing, Security and Interconnected Systems

Wide-Area Situation Awareness based on a Secure Interconnection between Cyber-Physical Control Systems

Posteriormente, examinamos e identificamos los requisitos especiales que limitan el diseño y la operación de una arquitectura de interoperabilidad segura para los SSC (particularmente los SCCF) del smart grid. Nos enfocamos en modelar requisitos no funcionales que dan forma a esta infraestructura, siguiendo la metodología NFR para extraer requisitos esenciales, técnicas para la satisfacción de los requisitos y métricas para nuestro modelo arquitectural. Estudiamos los servicios necesarios para la interoperabilidad segura de los SSC del SG revisando en profundidad los mecanismos de seguridad, desde los servicios básicos hasta los procedimientos avanzados capaces de hacer frente a las amenazas sofisticadas contra los sistemas de control, como son los sistemas de detección, protección y respuesta ante intrusiones. Nuestro análisis se divide en diferentes áreas: prevención, consciencia y reacción, y restauración; las cuales general un modelo de seguridad robusto para la protección de los sistemas críticos. Proporcionamos el diseño para un modelo arquitectural para la interoperabilidad segura y la interconexión de los SCCF del smart grid. Este escenario contempla la interconectividad de una federación de proveedores de energía del SG, que interactúan a través de la plataforma de interoperabilidad segura para gestionar y controlar sus infraestructuras de forma cooperativa. La plataforma tiene en cuenta las características inherentes y los nuevos servicios y tecnologías que acompañan al movimiento de la Industria 4.0. Por último, presentamos una prueba de concepto de nuestro modelo arquitectural, el cual ayuda a validar el diseño propuesto a través de experimentaciones. Creamos un conjunto de casos de validación que prueban algunas de las funcionalidades principales ofrecidas por la arquitectura diseñada para la interoperabilidad segura, proporcionando información sobre su rendimiento y capacidades.Las infraestructuras críticas (IICC) modernas son vastos sistemas altamente complejos, que precisan del uso de las tecnologías de la información para gestionar, controlar y monitorizar el funcionamiento de estas infraestructuras. Debido a sus funciones esenciales, la protección y seguridad de las infraestructuras críticas y, por tanto, de sus sistemas de control, se ha convertido en una tarea prioritaria para las diversas instituciones gubernamentales y académicas a nivel mundial. La interoperabilidad de las IICC, en especial de sus sistemas de control (SSC), se convierte en una característica clave para que estos sistemas sean capaces de coordinarse y realizar tareas de control y seguridad de forma cooperativa. El objetivo de esta tesis se centra, por tanto, en proporcionar herramientas para la interoperabilidad segura de los diferentes SSC, especialmente los sistemas de control ciber-físicos (SCCF), de forma que se potencie la intercomunicación y coordinación entre ellos para crear un entorno en el que las diversas infraestructuras puedan realizar tareas de control y seguridad cooperativas, creando una plataforma de interoperabilidad segura capaz de dar servicio a diversas IICC, en un entorno de consciencia situacional (del inglés situational awareness) de alto espectro o área (wide-area). Para ello, en primer lugar, revisamos las amenazas de carácter más sofisticado que amenazan la operación de los sistemas críticos, particularmente enfocándonos en los ciberataques camuflados (del inglés stealth) que amenazan los sistemas de control de infraestructuras críticas como el smart grid. Enfocamos nuestra investigación al análisis y comprensión de este nuevo tipo de ataques que aparece contra los sistemas críticos, y a las posibles contramedidas y herramientas para mitigar los efectos de estos ataques

Security assessment of the smart grid : a review focusing on the NAN architecture

Abstract: This paper presents a comprehensive review on the security aspect of the smart grid communication network. The paper focus on the Neighborhood Area Network (NAN) cybersecurity and it laid emphasis on how the NAN architecture is such an attractive target to intruders and attackers. The paper aims at summarizing recent research efforts on some of the attacks and the various techniques employed in tackling them as they were discussed in recent literatures and research works. Furthermore, the paper presents a detailed review on the smart grid communication layers, wireless technology standards, networks and the security challenges the grid is currently facing. The work concludes by explaining current and future directions NAN communication security could consider in terms of data privacy measures. The data privacy measures are discussed in terms of prevention and detection techniques

Real-Time Monitoring of Gas Fields: Prototype at Pt Gamma Energi Pratama Bogor

PT Gamma Energi Pratama is a company engaged in the instrumentation sector. One of the projects undertaken by PT Gamma Energi Pratama is on an oil and natural gas drilling site. The oil drilling process involves a tool called a Gas Jack Compressor originating from the United States. At first, the technician there used the local panel that came with the compressor. But procuring spare parts takes a long time. At the same time, the needs in the field demand to be met immediately. Therefore, the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) was chosen as a special microcontroller device that can access the compressor via the Modbus Protocol. PLCs can also be connected to Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) applications via Ethernet. This solution monitors data from sensor readings installed on the Gas Jack Compressor. The system is already running with its use only on the local scope. For the development of the system so that monitoring can be carried out in real-time and online, it needs to be linked to flow control devices, database systems, and interfaces for data visualization. Thus, monitoring gas fields can be done in real-time online

An agent based architecture to support monitoring in plug and produce manufacturing systems using knowledge extraction

In recent years a set of production paradigms were proposed in order to capacitate manufacturers to meet the new market requirements, such as the shift in demand for highly customized products resulting in a shorter product life cycle, rather than the traditional mass production standardized consumables. These new paradigms advocate solutions capable of facing these requirements, empowering manufacturing systems with a high capacity to adapt along with elevated flexibility and robustness in order to deal with disturbances, like unexpected orders or malfunctions. Evolvable Production Systems propose a solution based on the usage of modularity and self-organization with a fine granularity level, supporting pluggability and in this way allowing companies to add and/or remove components during execution without any extra re-programming effort. However, current monitoring software was not designed to fully support these characteristics, being commonly based on centralized SCADA systems, incapable of re-adapting during execution to the unexpected plugging/unplugging of devices nor changes in the entire system’s topology. Considering these aspects, the work developed for this thesis encompasses a fully distributed agent-based architecture, capable of performing knowledge extraction at different levels of abstraction without sacrificing the capacity to add and/or remove monitoring entities, responsible for data extraction and analysis, during runtime

Analysis and design of security mechanisms in the context of Advanced Persistent Threats against critical infrastructures

Industry 4.0 can be defined as the digitization of all components within the industry, by combining productive processes with leading information and communication technologies. Whereas this integration has several benefits, it has also facilitated the emergence of several attack vectors. These can be leveraged to perpetrate sophisticated attacks such as an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT), that ultimately disrupts and damages critical infrastructural operations with a severe impact. This doctoral thesis aims to study and design security mechanisms capable of detecting and tracing APTs to ensure the continuity of the production line. Although the basic tools to detect individual attack vectors of an APT have already been developed, it is important to integrate holistic defense solutions in existing critical infrastructures that are capable of addressing all potential threats. Additionally, it is necessary to prospectively analyze the requirements that these systems have to satisfy after the integration of novel services in the upcoming years. To fulfill these goals, we define a framework for the detection and traceability of APTs in Industry 4.0, which is aimed to fill the gap between classic security mechanisms and APTs. The premise is to retrieve data about the production chain at all levels to correlate events in a distributed way, enabling the traceability of an APT throughout its entire life cycle. Ultimately, these mechanisms make it possible to holistically detect and anticipate attacks in a timely and autonomous way, to deter the propagation and minimize their impact. As a means to validate this framework, we propose some correlation algorithms that implement it (such as the Opinion Dynamics solution) and carry out different experiments that compare the accuracy of response techniques that take advantage of these traceability features. Similarly, we conduct a study on the feasibility of these detection systems in various Industry 4.0 scenarios