A Secure Dual-MCU Architecture for Robust Communication of IIoT Devices

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has already become a part of our everyday life be it water supply, smart grid, or production, IIoT is everywhere. For example, factory operators want to know the current state of the production line. These new demands for data acquisition in modern plants require industrial components to be able to communicate. Nowadays, network communication in Industrial Control Systems (ICSs) is often implemented via an IP-based protocol. This intercommunication also brings a larger attack surface for hackers. If an IIoT device is influenced by attackers, the physical process could be affected. For example, a high network load could cause a high Central Processing Unit (CPU) load and influence the reaction time on the physical control side. In this paper, we introduce a dual Microcontroller Unit (MCU) setup to ensure a resilient controlling for IIoT devices like Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). We introduce a possible solution for the demand of secure architectures in the IIoT. Moreover, we provide a Proof of Concept (PoC) implementation with a benchmark and a comparison with a standard PLC

Comparison between phosphine and NHC-modified Pd catalysts in the telomerization of butadiene with methanol – a kinetic study combined with model-based experimental analysis

The authors thank the European Community within its project SYNFLOW (FP7; grant agreement n8 NMP2-LA-2010-246461) for financial support.The telomerization of butadiene with methanol was investigated in the presence of different palladium catalysts modified either with triphenylphosphine (TPP) or 1,3-dimesityl-imidazol-2-ylidene (IMes) ligand. When pure butadiene was used as substrate, a moderate selectivity for the Pd-TPP catalyst toward the desired product 1-methoxy-2,7-octadiene (1-Mode) of around 87 % was obtained, while the IMes carbene ligand almost exclusively formed 1-Mode with 97.5 % selectivity. The selectivity remained unchanged when the pure butadiene feed was replaced by synthetic crack-C4 (sCC4), a technical feed of 45 mol% butadiene and 55 mol% inerts (butenes and butanes). The TPP-modified catalyst showed a lower reaction rate, which was attributed to the expected dilution effect caused by the inerts. Surprisingly, the IMes-modified catalyst showed a higher rate with sCC4 compared to the pure feed. By means of a model-based experimental analysis, kinetic rate equations could be derived. The kinetic modeling supports the assumption that the two catalyst systems follow different kinetic rate equations. For the Pd-TPP catalyst, the reaction kinetics were related to the Jolly mechanism. In contrast, the Jolly mechanism had to be adapted for the Pd-IMes catalyst as the impact of the base seems to differ strongly from that for the Pd-TPP catalyst. The Pd-IMes system was found to be zero order in butadiene at moderate to high butadiene concentrations and first order in base while the nucleophilicity of the base is influenced by the methanol amount resulting in a negative reaction order for methanol.PostprintPeer reviewe

Influence of obesity-related risk factors in the aetiology of glioma

BACKGROUND: Obesity and related factors have been implicated as possible aetiological factors for the development of glioma in epidemiological observation studies. We used genetic markers in a Mendelian randomisation framework to examine whether obesity-related traits influence glioma risk. This methodology reduces bias from confounding and is not affected by reverse causation. METHODS: Genetic instruments were identified for 10 key obesity-related risk factors, and their association with glioma risk was evaluated using data from a genome-wide association study of 12,488 glioma patients and 18,169 controls. The estimated odds ratio of glioma associated with each of the genetically defined obesity-related traits was used to infer evidence for a causal relationship. RESULTS: No convincing association with glioma risk was seen for genetic instruments for body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, lipids, type-2 diabetes, hyperglycaemia or insulin resistance. Similarly, we found no evidence to support a relationship between obesity-related traits with subtypes of glioma-glioblastoma (GBM) or non-GBM tumours. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides no evidence to implicate obesity-related factors as causes of glioma

Security Herausforderungen und Werkzeuge für robuste industrielle Systeme im Internet-der-Dinge

Mostly unnoticed by the population, industrial control systems control entire production systems. Due to the higher degree of networking and the resulting growing attack surface, these are increasingly the target of cyber-attacks. In this work, the robustness of programmable logic controllers with focus on denial-of-service attacks is analyzed. Additionally, open solutions and building blocks for the industrial IoT are implemented and evaluated to enable a secure Industry 4.0.Weitgehend unbemerkt von der Bevölkerung steuern Industrielle Kontrollsysteme ganze Fertigungsanlagen. Durch den erhöhten Vernetzungsgrad und die dadurch wachsende Angriffsfläche werden diese immer öfter Ziel von Cyberangriffen. In dieser Arbeit wird die Robustheit von Speicherprogrammierbare Steuerungen in Bezug auf Denial-of-Service Angriffen analysiert, sowie offene Lösungen und Buildingblocks für das industrielle IoT implementiert und erforscht, um eine sichere Industrie 4.0 zu ermöglichen

PropFuzz — An IT-security fuzzing framework for proprietary ICS protocols

Programmable Logic Controllers are used for smart homes, in production processes or to control critical infrastructures. Modern industrial devices in the control level are often communicating over proprietary protocols on top of TCP/IP with each other and SCADA systems. The networks in which the controllers operate are usually considered as trustworthy and thereby they are not properly secured. Due to the growing connectivity caused by the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 the security risks are rising. Therefore, the demand of security assessment tools for industrial networks is high. In this paper, we introduce a new fuzzing framework called PropFuzz, which is capable to fuzz proprietary industrial control system protocols and monitor the behavior of the controller. Furthermore, we present first results of a security assessment with our framewor