Secure Links: Secure-by-Design Communications in IEC 61499 Industrial Control Applications
This addresses security challenges for industrial control systems, but it is incremental as it builds on existing standards like IEC 61499.
The paper tackles the problem of software-level communication security in industrial control systems by proposing a secure-by-design development method using secure links, which reduces design and code complexity and improves maintainability and traceability.
Increasing automation and external connectivity in industrial control systems (ICS) demand a greater emphasis on software-level communication security. In this article, we propose a secure-by-design development method for building ICS applications, where requirements from security standards like ISA/IEC 62443 are fulfilled by design-time abstractions called secure links. Proposed as an extension to the IEC 61499 development standard, secure links incorporate both light-weight and traditional security mechanisms into applications with negligible effort. Applications containing secure links can be automatically compiled into fully IEC 61499-compliant software. Experimental results show secure links significantly reduce design and code complexity and improve application maintainability and requirements traceability.