Software defined networking opportunities for intelligent security enhancement of industrial control systems

Abstract

In the last years, cyber security of Industrial Control Systems (ICSs) has become an important issue due to the discovery of sophisticated malware that by attacking Critical Infrastructures, could cause catastrophic safety results. Researches have been developing countermeasures to enhance cyber security for pre-Internet era systems, which are extremely vulnerable to threats. This paper presents the potential opportunities that Software Defined Networking (SDN) provides for the security enhancement of Industrial Control Networks. SDN permits a high level of configuration of a network by the separation of control and data planes. In this work, we describe the affinities between SDN and ICSs and we discuss about implementation strategies.