Engineering edge security in industrial control systems

Abstract

Industrial Controllers (e.g., Programmable Logical Controllers – PLCs, and Remote Terminal Units – RTUs) have been specialized to deliver robust control strategies. However, little has been done towards the integration of security strategies within their application-layer. This chapter investigates the integration of security solutions within the industrial control system’s “edge” devices – the Industrial Controller (IC). As a specific case study it demonstrates the implementation of a simple anomaly detection engine traditional in control applications. The approach shows that the scheduling rate of control applications is significantly affected by various events, such as a change in the number of network packets, configuration interventions, etc. Implementations realized on a Phoenix Contact ILC 350-PN controller demonstrate the feasibility and applicability of the proposed methodology.