Abstract
The introduction of Docker containers ushered the emergence of microservices to facilitate efficient ways to deploy and manage containerized applications. Digital Twins in Industrial Control Systems (ICS) has enabled advances in the test and evaluation of those systems in a low-cost and non-disruptive manner. In this paper, we present our work on advancing the security of Industrial Control Systems through a four-pronged approach: i) provide a safe training infrastructure for ICS security; ii) present an effective avenue for ICS security testing without operational disruption; iii) implement ICS digital twins to enable ICS security training; and iv) facilitate the design, implementation, and evaluation of ICS security tools. To realize these objectives, we propose the utilization of Open Platform Infrastructure (OPI) with Docker technologies to deploy virtualized Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), also known as softPLC, and Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) that can emulate or act as digital twins of ICS. Further, we describe several docker containers instantiated from Dockerfiles to emulate typical Information Technology (IT) and Operation Technology (OT) networks to illustrate the viability and affordability of such implementations for teaching, learning, and testing of ICS security.
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Acknowledgement
This work is partially supported by the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs subaward number 20-144-12 under NSA-NCAE-C grant number H98230-20-1-0385 and the University of West Florida Center for Cybersecurity CyberSkills2Work program funded by the NSA National Centers of Academic Excellence (NCAE) Program under grant number H98230-23-1-0089. The United States Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints notwithstanding any copyright notation herein.
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Francia III, G., El-Sheikh, E. (2024). Open Platform Infrastructure for Industrial Control Systems Security. In: Daimi, K., Al Sadoon, A. (eds) Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Advances in Computing Research (ACR’24). ACR 2024. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 956. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-56950-0_20
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