Home // International Journal On Advances in Security, volume 17, numbers 1 and 2, 2024 // View article

Monitoring Physical-World Access of Virtual Automation Functions

Authors:
Rainer Falk
Steffen Fries

Keywords: cyber physical system; virtual automation system; attestation; industrial security; cybersecurity; security monitoring

Abstract:
Virtualized automation functions can be used in cyber-physical systems to influence the real, physical world using sensors and actuators connected via input-output modules. At the same time, other virtualized automation functions may be used for planning, testing, or for optimization. A reliable method for determining whether a certain virtualized automation function has access to the real, physical world is proposed, based on a cryptographically protected physical-world access attestation issued by an input/output module. It confirms which virtualized automation function has in fact access to the real-physical world via this input-output module. This allows monitoring which automation functions interact in fact with the real, physical world, and which ones are used for other, less critical purposes.

Pages: 44 to 52

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2024. Used with permission.

Publication date: June 30, 2024

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2636