A sandbox for industrial control systems (Security)

Details

Supervisors

Sadre, Ramin

Faculty

Ecole polytechnique de Louvain

Degree label

Master [120] en cybersécurité, à finalité spécialisée: conception et analyse de systèmes
Master [120] en cybersécurité, à finalité spécialisée: stratégies en entreprise

Abstract

enIndustrial Control Systems (ICS) are integral to the operation of essential infrastructure, yet they are increasingly facing growing cybersecurity challenges. The integration of operational technology with IT, the use of old systems, and growing connectivity all increased the attack surface, exposing the ICS environment to potential cyber threats. These vulnerabilities can result in major disruptions, safety threats, and economic loss. The work is an extension of a testbed for a virtual ICS that had been previously established, augmenting its functionality to simulate practical cyberattack scenarios in a controlled environment. The ultimate aim is to apply the testbed to discover and study potential security vulnerabilities of ICS configurations, thus enabling a better comprehension of threat vectors and system vulnerabilities. Through the simulation of different attack scenarios, the testbed is a useful tool for research and education, and one that can be used to experiment with countermeasures without endangering actual industrial operation. During the project, we will implement several attack simulations against various parts of the ICS architecture. Their performance under the testbed environment in regard to process disruption, detectability, as well as their potential use in education and research, will be evaluated. The testbed thus acts as a pragmatic, flexible instrument to aid cybersecurity research and training in the domain of ICS.