Hosting critical infrastructure services in the cloud environment considerations

Abstract

Hosting critical infrastructure services in the cloud environment considerations http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/6934/ Article LJMU has developed LJMU Research Online for users to access the research output of the University more effectively. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LJMU Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain.The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of the record. Please see the repository URL above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. Abstract: Critical infrastructure technology vendors will inevitability take advantage of the benefits offered by the cloud computing paradigm. While this may offer improved performance and scalability, the associated security threats impede this progression. Hosting critical infrastructure services in the cloud environment may seem inane to some, but currently remote access to the control system over the internet is commonplace. This shares the same characteristics as cloud computing, i.e., on-demand access and resource pooling. There is a wealth of data used within critical infrastructure. There needs to be an assurance that the confidentiality, integrity and availability of this data remains. Authenticity and non-repudiation are also important security requirements for critical infrastructure systems. This paper provides an overview of critical infrastructure and the cloud computing relationship, whilst detailing security concerns and existing protection methods. Discussion on the direction of the area is presented, as is a survey of current protection methods and their weaknesses. Finally, we present our observation and our current research into hosting critical infrastructure services in the cloud environment, and the considerations for detecting cloud attacks.

A secure fog‐based platform for SCADA‐based IoT critical infrastructure

“…The connectivity of SCADA networks increases the risk of cyber attacks, and hence, there is a need to improve the security of these networks. SCADA systems are rarely patched or updated as engineers are often hesitant to do so due to concerns that the patch itself could potentially adversely impact the operation of the system . Sajid et al highlighted the security challenges of cloud‐assisted IoT‐based SCADA systems and provided recommendations and best practices for improving and maintaining their security.…”

“…Institutional security policies and access rules can be specified and mapped to the cloud environment. Requirement‐based security issues can be different for CI applications and for common IT applications but need to be considered in combination for the given context . With this in mind, our proposed platform is detailed below.…”

An Elastic Scaling Method for Cloud Security

“…The importance of protecting these infrastructures has been particularly highlighted by the increase in advanced persistent threats (APTs), such as 'Stuxnet' and 'Duqu', which were designed to target these control systems and disrupt their functionality [7]. Effective protection of SCADA systems is therefore crucial, as these are important components of critical infrastructures, and it is apparent that existing methods do not meet the security requirements of such interconnected infrastructures [4].…”

“…Previous work of ours MacDermott et al [4] has detailed a way in which critical infrastructure could utilise the cloud environment for improved performance and analysis of the automation processes.…”

“…SCADA systems have evolved over the years from being monolithic, to distributed, to networked. Research has shown that cloud computing will eventually reach the IT services that are operating critical infrastructures [3][4][5][6]. There is a similarity between critical infrastructure and cloud computing, as they are primarily large distributed data sets and may possess the same underlying issues.…”