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Cybersecurity and Privacy Issues in Cyber-Physical Systems and Industrial Control Systems

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A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Systems & Control Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 March 2024) | Viewed by 20154

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Dr. Georgios Kavallieratos

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Department of Information Security and Communication Technology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-2815 Gjøvik, Norway
Interests: cybersecurity; risk management; threat analysis; critical infrastructure protection; cyber physical systems security
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Dr. Georgios Spathoulas

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Guest Editor

1. Department of Computer Science and Biomedical Informatics, University of Thessaly, 382 21 Volos, Greece
2. Department of Information Security and Communication Technology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2815 Gjøvik, Norway
Interests: security; intrusion detection; privacy blockchain
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Marios Anagnostopoulos

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Guest Editor

Department of Electronic Systems, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark
Interests: ICT security and privacy; DNS security
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are physical and engineered systems that interact with the physical environment. These systems exist everywhere around us, and range in size, complexity and criticality, from embedded systems used in smart vehicles, to SCADA systems in smart grids to control systems in water distribution systems, to smart transportation systems, to plant control systems, engineering workstations, substation equipment, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and other Industrial Control Systems (ICS). CPSs are elements of the Internet of Things (IoT) and, because they have resulted from the integration of information technology with operational technology, are central to the fourth industrial revolution and to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

As CPS and ICS proliferate, and increasingly interconnect and interact among them and with us, they present an increased cyber-attack surface. As they also increasingly affect our life, their cybersecurity becomes of paramount importance. Accordingly, research into the cybersecurity and privacy of CPSs is attracting increasing attention from both industry and academia.

In line with these efforts, the main theme of this Special Issue is to investigate novel methodologies, theories, technologies, techniques, processes, and solutions for CPS cybersecurity and privacy. In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews that present innovative ideas, proof of concepts, use cases, and results from a variety of topics relevant to ICS and CPS are welcome. Topics addressed in the submissions include but are not limited to:

Attacks and attack detection for CPS and ICS
Authentication and access control for CPS and ICS
Blockchain for CPS and ICS cybersecurity
Data security and privacy for CPS and ICS
Digital twin security for CPS and ICS
Embedded systems security
Formal methods for CPS and ICS cybersecurity
Incident Response and Digital Forensics for CPS and ICS
IoT and IIoT cybersecurity and privacy
Lightweight crypto technologies applied to CPS and ICS
Maritime CPS cybersecurity
Methods, tools and techniques for the elicitation, analysis and modeling of security requirements for CPS and ICS
Penetration testing for CPS and ICS
Recovery of CPS and ICS from cyber attacks
Risk management for CPS and ICS
Secure communication protocols for CPS and ICS
Security architectures for CPS and ICS
Security by design for CPS and ICS
Security testing methods and tools for CPS and ICS
Threat modeling for CPS and ICS
Vulnerability analysis for CPS and ICS

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Georgios Kavallieratos
Dr. Georgios Spathoulas
Dr. Marios Anagnostopoulos
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

cybersecurity
cyber-physical systems
industrial control systems
privacy, risk management
vulnerability assessment
threat modeling
intrusion detection
incident response
cyber security requirements engineering

Related Special Issue

Cybersecurity and Privacy Issues in Cyber-Physical Systems and Industrial Control Systems, 2nd Edition in Electronics

Published Papers (10 papers)

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17 pages, 635 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Systematic Analysis of Security Metrics for Industrial Cyber–Physical Systems

by Giacomo Gori, Lorenzo Rinieri, Andrea Melis, Amir Al Sadi, Franco Callegati and Marco Prandini

Electronics 2024, 13(7), 1208; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13071208 - 25 Mar 2024

Viewed by 633

Abstract

Nowadays, as the cyber-threat landscape is evolving and digital assets are proliferating and becoming more and more interconnected with the internet and heterogeneous devices, it is fundamental to be able to obtain a sensible measure of the security of devices, networks, and systems. Industrial cyber–physical systems (ICPSs), in particular, can be exposed to high operational risks that entail damage to revenues, assets, and even people. A way to overcome the open question of measuring security is with the use of security metrics. With metrics it is possible to rely on proven indicators that benchmark systems, identify vulnerabilities, and show practical data to assess the risk. However, security metrics are often proposed with specific contexts in mind, and a set of them specifically crafted for ICPSs is not explicitly available in the literature. For this reason, in this work, we analyze the current state of the art in the selection of security metrics and we propose a systematic methodology to gather, filter, and validate security metrics. Then, we apply the procedure to the ICPS domain, gathering almost 300 metrics from the literature, analyzing the domain to identify the properties useful to filter the metrics, and applying a validation framework to assess the validity of the filtered metrics, obtaining a final set capable of measuring the security of ICPSs from different perspectives. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cybersecurity and Privacy Issues in Cyber-Physical Systems and Industrial Control Systems)

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17 pages, 3097 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Dynamic Data Abstraction-Based Anomaly Detection for Industrial Control Systems

by Jake Cho and Seonghyeon Gong

Electronics 2024, 13(1), 158; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13010158 - 29 Dec 2023

Viewed by 897

Abstract

Industrial control systems (ICS) are critical networks directly linked to the value of core national and societal assets, yet they are increasingly becoming primary targets for numerous cyberattacks today. The ICS network, a fusion of operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) networks, possesses a broad attack vector, and attacks targeting ICS often take the form of advanced persistent threats (APTs) exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities. However, most existing ICS security techniques have been adaptations of security technologies for IT networks, and security measures tailored to the characteristics of ICS data are currently insufficient. To mitigate cyber threats to ICS networks, this paper proposes an anomaly detection technique based on dynamic data abstraction. The proposed method abstracts ICS data collected in real time using a dynamic data abstraction technique based on noise reduction. The abstracted data are then used to optimize both the update rate and the detection accuracy of the anomaly detection model through model adaptation and incremental learning processes. The proposed approach updates the model by quickly reflecting data on new attack patterns and their distributions, effectively shortening the dwell time in response to APTs utilizing zero-day vulnerabilities. We demonstrate the attack response performance and detection accuracy of the proposed dynamic data abstraction-based anomaly detection technique through experiments using the SWaT dataset generated from a testbed of an actual ICS process. The experiments show that the proposed model achieves high accuracy with a small number of abstracted data while rapidly learning new attack pattern data in real-time without compromising accuracy. The proposed technique can effectively respond to cyberattacks targeting ICS by quickly learning and reflecting trends in attack patterns that exploit zero-day vulnerabilities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cybersecurity and Privacy Issues in Cyber-Physical Systems and Industrial Control Systems)

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17 pages, 381 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Testing Commercial Intrusion Detection Systems for Industrial Control Systems in a Substation Hardware in the Loop Testlab

by Jon-Martin Storm, Siv Hilde Houmb, Pallavi Kaliyar, Laszlo Erdodi and Janne Merete Hagen

Electronics 2024, 13(1), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13010060 - 21 Dec 2023

Viewed by 1174

Abstract

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are increasingly integrated with Information Technology (IT) systems, blending Operational Technology (OT) and IT components. This evolution introduces new cyber-attack risks, necessitating specialized security measures like Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS). This paper presents our work on both developing an experimental protocol and conducting tests of various IDS types in a digital substation hardware in the loop (HIL) testbed, offering insights into their performance in realistic scenarios. Our findings reveal significant variations in IDS effectiveness against industrial-specific cyber-attacks, with IT-specific IDSs struggling to detect certain attacks and changing testlab conditions affecting the assessment of ICS-specific IDSs. The challenges faced in creating valid and reliable evaluation metrics underscore the complexities of replicating operational ICS conditions. This research enhances our understanding of IDS effectiveness in ICS settings and underscores the importance of further experimental research in HIL testlab environments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cybersecurity and Privacy Issues in Cyber-Physical Systems and Industrial Control Systems)

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21 pages, 572 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Fine-Grained Access Control with User Revocation in Smart Manufacturing

by Ernesto Gómez-Marín, Davide Martintoni, Valerio Senni, Encarnación Castillo and Luis Parrilla

Electronics 2023, 12(13), 2843; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12132843 - 27 Jun 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1233

Abstract

Collaborative manufacturing is a key enabler of Industry 4.0 that requires secure data sharing among multiple parties. However, intercompany data-sharing raises important privacy and security concerns, particularly given intellectual property and business-sensitive information collected by many devices. In this paper, we propose a solution that combines four technologies to address these challenges: Attribute-Based Encryption for data access control, blockchain for data integrity and non-repudiation, Hardware Security Modules for authenticity, and the Interplanetary File System for data scalability. We also use OpenID for dynamic client identification and propose a new method for user revocation in Attribute-Based Encryption. Our evaluation shows that the solution can scale up to 2,000,000 clients while maintaining all security guarantees. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cybersecurity and Privacy Issues in Cyber-Physical Systems and Industrial Control Systems)

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18 pages, 2260 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Attacking IEC 61850 Substations by Targeting the PTP Protocol

by Aida Akbarzadeh, Laszlo Erdodi, Siv Hilde Houmb, Tore Geir Soltvedt and Hans Kristian Muggerud

Electronics 2023, 12(12), 2596; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12122596 - 8 Jun 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2606

Abstract

Digital substations, also referred to as modern power grid substations, utilize the IEC 61850 station and process bus in conjunction with IP-based communication. This includes communication with switch yard equipment within the substation as well as the dispatch center. IEC 61850 is a global standard developed to standardize power grid communications, covering multiple communication needs related to modern power grid substations or digital substations. Unlike the legacy communication standards, IEC 60870-5-104 and DNP3, IEC 61850 is specifically designed for IP-based communication. It comprises several communication models and supports real-time communication by introducing the process bus to replace traditional peer-to-peer communication with standard network communication between substation equipment and the switch yard. The process bus, especially Sampled Measured Values (SMV) communication, in modern power grid substations relies on extremely accurate and synchronized time to prevent equipment damage, maintain power grid system balance, and ensure safety. In IEC 61850, time synchronization is provided by the Precision Time Protocol (PTP). This paper discusses the significance and challenges of time synchronization in IEC 61850 substations, particularly those associated with PTP. It presents the results of a controlled experiment that subjects time synchronization and PTP to cyber-attacks and discusses the potential consequences of such attacks. The paper also provides recommendations for potential mitigation strategies. The contribution of this paper is to provide insights and recommendations for enhancing the security of IEC 61850-based substations against cyber-attacks targeting time synchronization. The paper also explores the potential consequences of cyber-attacks and provides recommendations for potential mitigation strategies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cybersecurity and Privacy Issues in Cyber-Physical Systems and Industrial Control Systems)

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16 pages, 1999 KiB

Open AccessArticle

DpGuard: A Lightweight Attack Detection Method for an Industrial Bus Network

by Zecun Li, Qiang Wei, Rongkuan Ma, Yangyang Geng, Yahui Yang and Zhuo Lv

Electronics 2023, 12(5), 1121; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12051121 - 24 Feb 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1206

Abstract

In industrial control systems (ICSs), the PROFIBUS-DP (decentralized peripherals) protocol is widely used for communication between devices. Because PROFIBUS-DP is an unencrypted and insecure bus protocol, attackers can connect to the PROFIBUS-DP system and arbitrarily manipulate I/O process values, which may interrupt the normal operation of industrial equipment, or have more serious consequences. However, due to the complex structures of bus networks and the large number of attack areas, the existing scheme does not monitor all the messages in the industrial head office network and cannot effectively detect semantic attacks. To solve this problem, we propose a novel attack detection system DpGuard. DpGuard automatically builds a finite-state machine model of normal ICS behavior through a large number of historical ICS traffic data. The model includes state events, state transitions, state transition probability, and other normal behavior information. In addition, DpGuard records the execution status of the context data package, uses the real-time captured data package as the input of the model, and judges whether the state event and state transition probability conform to the constraints of the finite-state machine model, so as to identify the legitimate normal behavior of the ICS. Our proposal was evaluated using two Siemens PLCs (programmable logic controllers) deployed on the PROFIBUS-DP system. The experimental results demonstrated that the scheme could accurately detect fault injection and semantic attacks. Compared with other detection models, our scheme presented an improved detection performance, with a detection accuracy of 99.80%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cybersecurity and Privacy Issues in Cyber-Physical Systems and Industrial Control Systems)

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20 pages, 1534 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Zero-Trust Architecture for Remote Access in Industrial IoT Infrastructures

by Fabio Federici, Davide Martintoni and Valerio Senni

Electronics 2023, 12(3), 566; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12030566 - 22 Jan 2023

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4091

Abstract

This paper considers the domain of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) infrastructures and the recurring need for collaboration across teams and stakeholders by means of remote access. The paper describes a secure solution beyond the traditional perimeter-based security approach, which consists of an architecture that supports multi-level authorization to achieve fine-grained access control, better scalability, and maintainability. An implementation of the proposed solution, using open-source technologies, is also discussed and covers the protection of both the network and edge domains of a complex IIoT infrastructure. Finally, the paper presents a risk-driven and model-based process that is designed to support the migration of existing infrastructures to the solution architecture. The approach is validated, taking as a reference two relevant scenarios for the aerospace industry. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cybersecurity and Privacy Issues in Cyber-Physical Systems and Industrial Control Systems)

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19 pages, 1973 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Secure State Estimation of Cyber-Physical System under Cyber Attacks: Q-Learning vs. SARSA

by Zengwang Jin, Menglu Ma, Shuting Zhang, Yanyan Hu, Yanning Zhang and Changyin Sun

Electronics 2022, 11(19), 3161; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11193161 - 1 Oct 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1810

Abstract

This paper proposes a reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm for the security problem of state estimation of cyber-physical system (CPS) under denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. The security of CPS will inevitably decline when faced with malicious cyber attacks. In order to analyze the impact of cyber attacks on CPS performance, a Kalman filter, as an adaptive state estimation technology, is combined with an RL method to evaluate the issue of system security, where estimation performance is adopted as an evaluation criterion. Then, the transition of estimation error covariance under a DoS attack is described as a Markov decision process, and the RL algorithm could be applied to resolve the optimal countermeasures. Meanwhile, the interactive combat between defender and attacker could be regarded as a two-player zero-sum game, where the Nash equilibrium policy exists but needs to be solved. Considering the energy constraints, the action selection of both sides will be restricted by setting certain cost functions. The proposed RL approach is designed from three different perspectives, including the defender, the attacker and the interactive game of two opposite sides. In addition, the framework of Q-learning and state–action–reward–state–action (SARSA) methods are investigated separately in this paper to analyze the influence of different RL algorithms. The results show that both algorithms obtain the corresponding optimal policy and the Nash equilibrium policy of the zero-sum interactive game. Through comparative analysis of two algorithms, it is verified that the differences between Q-Learning and SARSA could be applied effectively into the secure state estimation in CPS. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cybersecurity and Privacy Issues in Cyber-Physical Systems and Industrial Control Systems)

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17 pages, 2461 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Adaptive Enhanced Technique for Locked Target Detection and Data Transmission over Internet of Healthcare Things

by Muhammad Amir Khan, Jawad Khan, Nabila Sehito, Khalid Mahmood, Haider Ali, Inam Bari, Muhammad Arif and Rania M. Ghoniem

Electronics 2022, 11(17), 2726; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11172726 - 30 Aug 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1991 | Correction

Abstract

The incredible advancements in data transmission technology have opened up more potentials for data security than ever before. Numerous methods for data protection have been developed during the previous decades, including steganography and cryptography. The security and integrity of medical data have emerged as major barriers for healthcare service systems as the Internet of Things has evolved dramatically in the healthcare business. Communication between two devices securely is a difficult problem. Numerous cryptographic algorithms are already available, including data encryption standard (DES), Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA), and advanced encryption standard (AES). In this paper, we present a hybrid security model for the protection of diagnostic text data contained in medical photographs. The proposed model is built by combining a proposed hybrid encryption system with either a 2D Discrete Wavelet Transform 1 Level (2D-DWT-1L) or a 2D Discrete Wavelet Transform 2 Level (2D-DWT-2L) steganography technique. The suggested model encrypts secret data and hides them using 2D-DWT-3L. As text covers, color and grayscale images are employed. The suggested system’s performance was tested using PSNR, SSIM, MSE, and Correlation. Associated to state-of-the-art approaches, the proposed model masked personal patient data with high capacity, imperceptibility and minimum deterioration in the received stego-image. We use MATLAB to build the proposed mechanism, and measures such as throughput and execution time are used to assess performance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cybersecurity and Privacy Issues in Cyber-Physical Systems and Industrial Control Systems)

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1 pages, 158 KiB

Open AccessCorrection

Correction: Khan et al. An Adaptive Enhanced Technique for Locked Target Detection and Data Transmission over Internet of Healthcare Things. Electronics 2022, 11, 2726

by Muhammad Amir Khan, Jawad Khan, Nabila Sehito, Khalid Mahmood, Haider Ali, Inam Bari, Muhammad Arif and Rania M. Ghoniem

Electronics 2022, 11(19), 3112; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11193112 - 29 Sep 2022

Viewed by 884

Abstract

There was an error in the original publication [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cybersecurity and Privacy Issues in Cyber-Physical Systems and Industrial Control Systems)

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