Security of Cyber-Physical Systems. From Theory to Testbeds and Validation
This work addresses security challenges for cyber-physical systems, particularly in industrial and critical infrastructure domains, by providing a practical testbed for training and research, though it is incremental as it builds on existing testbed concepts.
The paper tackles the need for protection in cyber-physical systems by developing a replicable and affordable testbed based on real-world components, emulating scenarios with SCADA technologies and focusing on protocols like Modbus and DNP3, and it evaluates detection strategies under adversarial threat situations.
Traditional control environments connected to physical systems are being upgraded with novel information and communication technologies. The resulting systems need to be adequately protected. Experimental testbeds are crucial for the study and analysis of ongoing threats against those resulting cyber-physical systems. The research presented in this paper discusses some actions towards the development of a replicable and affordable cyber-physical testbed for training and research. The architecture of the testbed is based on real-world components, and emulates cyber-physical scenarios commanded by SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) technologies. We focus on two representative protocols, Modbus and DNP3. The paper reports as well the development of some adversarial scenarios, in order to evaluate the testbed under cyber-physical threat situations. Some detection strategies are evaluated using our proposed testbed.