Elliptic Curve Cryptography Considerations for Securing Automation and SCADA Systems

Abstract

Securing critical infrastructures and manufacturing plants in the Industrial-Internet-Of-Things and Industry 4.0 is a challenge today due to the increased number of attacks against automation and SCADA systems. These systems were built without any security considerations in mind, so the evolution towards interconnection and interoperability makes them vulnerable in the context of exposing data to the outside network. Even though new protocols are considering built-in security, the widely spread legacy standard protocols need to be protected. Hence, this paper attempts to offer a solution for securing the legacy insecure communication protocols based on elliptic curve cryptography while fulfilling the time constraints of a real SCADA network. Elliptic curve cryptography is chosen to respond to the low memory resources available for the low level devices of a SCADA network (e.g., PLCs), and also because it can achieve the same level of security as other cryptographic algorithms using smaller sizes for the secure keys. Furthermore, the proposed security methods have the purpose of assuring that the data transmitted between entities of a SCADA and automation system are authentic and confidential. The experimental results showed good timing performance for the cryptographic operations executed on Industruino and MDUINO PLCs, demonstrating that our proposed concept is deployable for Modbus TCP communication in a real automation/SCADA network on existing devices from the industry.

Review of Industry 4.0 from the Perspective of Automation and Supervision Systems: Definitions, Architectures and Recent Trends

“…However, it is worth noting that thanks to this connectivity, support for protocols, such as MQTT, OPC-UA, Modbus TCP and PROFINET, is possible. In addition, the latter one is not so modern but also receives research efforts and is applied in the Industry 4.0 and IIoT arenas [1,8,94,95].…”

“…A conceptual framework for IIoT systems oriented towards smart manufacturing is proposed in [88], which includes PLCs in the network layer, highlighting the coexistence of such devices alongside other IoT technologies. In [1], cybersecurity issues are studied in a facility composed by an industrial SCADA alongside a set of Arduino-based automation units.…”

“…Automation and supervision systems are essential in any type of productive process. Indeed, these systems control vital infrastructure to ensure a well-functioning society, such as transportation systems, health systems, water, energy, economy and national security [1].…”

“…Indeed, the literature shows an increasing amount of publications dealing with new technological developments oriented towards sensing, data acquisition, visualization, data storage and analytics, where PLC and SCADA systems are not being left behind. In fact, their presence and role in Industry 4.0-compliant facilities are still essential and needed [1,3,7,8].…”

Lightweight Authentication Mechanism for Industrial IoT Environment Combining Elliptic Curve Cryptography and Trusted Token

“…The JWT is encrypted using the blockchain public key of the expected registrant, and the blockchain ensures ownership of the JWT by mapping it to the blockchain public address of the intended owner. In another paper [ 19 ], an identity authentication mechanism based on elliptic curve cryptography was proposed for SCADA systems, using OPTIGA Trust X as the device, which provides secure storage for ECC keys. Sharma et al [ 20 ] explored device identity authentication using password-based, one-time password (OTP)-based, and certificate-based methods, analyzing the security of these three authentication approaches in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT).…”