Abstract: One of the main obstacles of securing industrial control systems is the lack of an appropriate security model that is both implementable by vendors and addresses the inherent security and usability issues needed by organizations. Current solutions such as device passwords and IPSec lack scalable key management infrastructure and fine granularity access control mechanisms. A security model for industrial control systems that supports organizational level authorizations and authentication requirements, while hiding the low-level details (e.g., keys and passwords) from the users is disclosed. It also enables easy addition and removal of PLCs, engineering station, HMI devices and users, and assigning permission to them. A major advantage is its support for hybrid ICS systems, characterized by co-existence of legacy devices and new devices, while using the same protocol. Devices may communicate therein either natively, or by a connected converter.

Abstract: One of the main obstacles of securing industrial control systems is the lack of an appropriate security model that is both implementable by vendors and addresses the inherent security and usability issues needed by organizations. Current solutions such as device passwords and IPSec lack scalable key management infrastructure and fine granularity access control mechanisms. A security model for industrial control systems that supports organizational level authorizations and authentication requirements, while hiding the low-level details (e.g., keys and passwords) from the users is disclosed. It also enables easy addition and removal of PLCs, engineering station, HMI devices and users, and assigning permission to them. A major advantage is its support for hybrid ICS systems, characterized by co-existence of legacy devices and new devices, while using the same protocol. Devices may communicate therein either natively, or by a connected converter.