Evolutionary identification algorithm for unknown structured mechatronics systems using GA

Detecting cyberattacks in industrial control systems using online learning algorithms

After investigating the conception and features of PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) and embedded system, in this paper the conception of a Quasi-PLC is proposed, which combine the advantages of PLC and embedded system. The architecture of Quasi-PLC and a Top-Down design method with collaboration design of software and hardware for Quasi-PLC embedded control system are researched then. Finally, setting the large-scale industrial valve control system as an example, the conception of Quasi-PLC and related technologies are used in industrial valve control system, and a satisfied application effect is obtained, which proves the rationality of the conception of Quasi-PLC and related technologies.

Recent world events and geopolitics have brought the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to cyberattacks to the forefront. While there has been considerable attention to attacks on Information Technology (IT) systems, such as data theft and ransomware, the vulnerabilities and dangers posed by industrial control systems (ICS) have received significantly less attention. What is very different is that industrial control systems can be made to do things that could destroy equipment or even harm people. For example, in 2021 the US encountered a cyberattack on a water treatment plant in Florida that could have resulted in serious injuries or even death. These risks are based on the unique physical characteristics of these industrial systems. In this paper, we present a holistic, integrated safety and security analysis, we call Cybersafety, based on the STAMP (System-Theoretic Accident Model and Processes) framework, for one such industrial system—an industrial chiller plant—as an example. In this analysis, we identify vulnerabilities emerging from interactions between technology, operator actions as well as organizational structure, and provide recommendations to mitigate resulting loss scenarios in a systematic manner.

Introduction In the last chapter, we explored how to determine a cyber-attacker's optimal strategy for attacking a computer system based on malware and exploits available on the darkweb. In this chapter, we look at the case where the attacker is focused on industrial control systems (ICS): IT infrastructure that controls physical systems (electricity, water, industrial machinery, etc.). A critical feature of these complex ICS systems is the interdependencies among various components. However, despite the prevalence of markets for malware and exploits, and their potential threat to ICS, existing paradigms, including the framework presented in the previous chapter, do not account for the complex nature of ICS systems consisting of multiple interconnected components. In particular, it would prove useful to simulate a cyber-attack on a model of an existing system, to assess its degree of vulnerability. Such a model would also prove useful for automated cybersecurity systems that can learn defense and contingency strategies based on the model's simulations. This chapter takes the first steps toward addressing this need. In particular, we introduce a framework that allows for modeling of ICS systems with highly interconnected components (Section 7.3) and study this model through the lens of lattice theory [57]. We then turn our attention to the problem of determining the optimal/most dangerous strategy for a cyber-adversary with respect to this model and find it to be an NPComplete problem (Section 7.4). Next, we present a suite of algorithms for this problem based on A* search and introduce provably correct algorithms (Section 7.5). Our intuition is that these algorithms will obtain satisfactory performance in practice due to heuristic functions (for which we show admissibility). We demonstrate the performance of these algorithms by implementing them and performing a suite of experiments using both simulated and actual vulnerability data (Section 7.6). This chapter also includes some background on ICS (Section 7.2) and a brief overview of related work (Section 7.7). Background Contemporary cyber threat actors rely on a variety of malware and exploits purchased through various channels such as the darkweb [99] in order to carry out their attacks. The trend toward automation of industrial control systems (ICS) and toward “smart” utilities [50] has made understanding such adversarialbehavior directed against ICS a priority. For instance, code from the infamous Stuxnet [97] attack against Iranian nuclear facilities is available for public download.

The need for detection, identification and prediction of anomalies emerged just a short time ago. This task brings multiple challenges that are mainly associated with recording and detection of novel attacks and influences. It draws attention of experts in network security and diagnostics of information and industrial systems. Detection of anomalies in dynamic dataflows largely determines the efficiency of management of computer network information security within information and industrial systems. At the same time, the technology of dynamic dataflow prediction is also very important for building systems intended to detect anomalies in data protection within industrial control systems. Any automated systems are based on available computer capabilities and advances in management theory, mathematical modeling and optimizations methods. Processes that occur in industrial automated systems and that are reflected in dataflows being observed constitute complex multi-component processes, thus making it more complicated to predict such processes. In this case, complex multi-component time series data should be predicted at different (short-term, medium-term and long-term) time scales. A neural network architecture matching the structure of the multi-component time series being predicted should be built for generating a multi-component prediction. It is proposed to decompose the complex multi-component time series into several basic components using the digital signal processing technology, i. e. to perform a preliminary structural analysis of multi-component time series within the observed range of all time series that reflect operation of the industrial control system. Separate predictions with different time horizon are formed for each basic component of the multi-component time series using the available neural network architecture and machine learning taking into account dynamic characteristics of the above components. Anomalies in the observed range of multiple time series that reflect operation of the industrial control system are detected (identified) through component-wise comparison of each component (resulted from the above preliminary digital processing) of any time series within the observed range of all time series, with each prediction of the relevant component of the above time series within the observed range of all time series. This approach that implies component-wise comparison will allow to detect anomalies within the range of observed time series of the industrial control system separately by their different dynamic characteristics, and thus will improve the efficiency of management of information security within information and industrial systems.

System safety and cyber security have a great effect on system reliability which is the foundation of keeping system running-normally. Although safety and security controls can reinforce each other mutually, contradictions between them also exist, such as resource competition that may cause serious damage. This paper puts forward a risk-based task scheduling approach for the integrated control of system safety and cyber security in industrial control systems (ICSs). In this approach, an integrated task model covering both safety task and security task is proposed, which describes the relationship between task and risk in detail. And the change of real-time risk during the enforcement of these tasks is analysed. These tasks are scheduled through an optimal scheduling scheme which means the risk decrease as soon as possible and is always acceptable based on genetic algorithm. Further, simulation results show that the proposed approach is effective for task scheduling and real-time risk control.

Currently, most anomaly detection approaches in industrial control systems (ICSs) use network event logs to build models, and current unsupervised machine learning methods rarely use spatiotemporal correlations and other dependencies between multiple variables (sensors/actuators) in a system to detect anomalies. Most of the existing anomaly detection technologies simply compare the current states with the predicted normal range. Due to the highly dynamic characteristic of industrial control systems, it is insufficient to simply compare the current states with the predicted normal range. As a result, these approaches have low detection rates for unknown or new types of attacks. In view of these shortcomings, this paper presents a network model for predicting sensor/controller parameters in industrial control systems. To predict the parameter values of the sensors and controllers more accurately, the 1D convolutional neural network (1D_CNN) and gated recurrent unit (GRU) are combined to fully learn the spatiotemporal correlation and other dependencies between the parameter values of the sensors and controllers at each moment. An abnormal state detection method based on the calculation of the statistical deviation is proposed to realize the anomaly detection of industrial control systems. The model is validated on the Secure Water Treatment (SWaT) dataset. The precision, recall and F1 scores are used to evaluate the effectiveness of this method in anomaly detection on the SWaT dataset. The experimental results show that the average precision and recall of this method are 0.99 and 0.85, respectively, and that the average F1 score is 0.91. The experimental results show that the proposed method can be successfully applied to anomaly detection systems in industrial control systems with lower false positive rates.

This article presents an analysis of industrial control system (ICS), its multilevel structure and operation conditions. The ICS infrastructure is considered as a part of enterprise information system (EIS). The problem of information security of ICS is discussed. The reasons why ICS information security has become one of the most discussed issues of our time is defined. A model of EIS infrastructure comprising industrial control system is suggested. A verbal model of ICS as a protection object of information security system (ISS) is developed. The model takes into account all computer equipment, communication lines, channels, components of the three ICS levels. The necessary of a development of such models is substantiated according to the system analysis method. Modeling is an effective tool for studying the characteristics of complex systems and makes it possible to have a closer look at their structure. A successful development of ISS depends on the adequacy of a protection object model (ICS), taking into account its specific features.

Critical industrial infrastructures are currently facing increasing cyberspace threats in their underlying information and communication systems. The advanced monitoring, control, and management functionalities of the industrial systems firmly rely on the reliable and secure operations of the industrial control system (ICS) network. This article characterizes the ICS network traffic and presents a scalable and efficient solution for real-time ICS network traffic anomaly detection, considering various forms of ICS anomaly events. The events due to the cyberattacks, malicious operating behaviors, and network anomalies can be effectively detected without sophisticated computational requirements and retrieval of communication protocols. The proposed hybrid statistical-machine learning model integrates a seasonal autoregressive integration moving average (SARIMA)-based dynamic threshold model and a long short-term memory (LSTM) model to jointly identify the abnormal traffic patterns with low false omission rates. The proposed solution is extensively evaluated at a realistic ICS cyber–physical system (CPS) testbed, and the numerical results confirm its high detection accuracy and low computational complexity. Note to Practitioners—This article was motivated by the challenge of real-time anomaly detection in industrial cyber–physical systems (CPSs). The existing industrial control system (ICS) network anomaly detection solutions are generally carried out based on a single model based on the historian database and cannot dynamically classify the abnormal conditions in a real-time fashion. A novel hybrid statistical-machine learning model is developed that integrates a seasonal autoregressive integration moving average (SARIMA)-based dynamic threshold model and a long short-term memory (LSTM) model to jointly identify the anomalous events through traffic pattern analysis. The proposed anomaly detection solution can efficiently provide accurate detection for cyberattacks, malicious operating behaviors, and network anomalies while meeting the real-time requirements of ICS networks. The proposed solution can be deployed in the realistic ICS CPSs, e.g., the power generation system, gas pipeline systems, and urban railway transportation systems. The preliminary numerical results obtained from the ICS-CPS testbed suggested that it can provide high detection accuracy with low computational complexity and, hence, can be adopted with minimal deployment hurdles.

The implementation of automated regulatory control has been around since the middle of the last century through analog means. It has allowed engineers to operate the plant more consistently by focusing on overall operations and settings instead of individual monitoring of local instruments (inside and outside of a control room). A similar approach is proposed for cyber security, where current border-protection designs have been inherited from information technology developments that lack consideration of the high-reliability, high consequence nature of industrial control systems. Instead of an independent development, however, an integrated approach is taken to develop a holistic understanding of performance. This performance takes shape inside a multiagent design, which provides a notional context to model highly decentralized and complex industrial process control systems, the nervous system of critical infrastructure. The resulting strategy will provide a framework for researching solutions to security and unrecognized interdependency concerns with industrial control systems.

This paper addresses the pressing challenges of building secure and resilient Industrial Control Systems (ICS) by focusing on rapid attack detection, recovery, and maintaining monotonicity in online monitoring systems. Traditional methods often fail to quickly identify threats, leaving systems vulnerable to prolonged downtime. Specifically, classical online monitoring systems struggle to preserve monotonicity, as they typically detect only isolated anomalies during operation, which can mask subsequent deviations in system behavior. This research presents an advanced approach to resilient cyber-physical systems (CPS) that utilizes Signal Temporal Logic with Global Time (STL-GT) in combination with an Autotuning mechanism for robust realtime monitoring, multi-point anomaly detection, and recovery. This innovative framework enables prompt detection of attacks and faults, along with rapid system recovery. Our STL-GT online monitoring system incorporates a syntactic separation technique based on a partition rule to address monotonicity issues and improve the system's ability to detect and respond to multiple anomalies during system execution. The autotuning mechanism, based on Internal Model Control (IMC) PID tuning rules, enables swift and adaptive system recovery in the event of disruptions. We validated our methodology using the Tennessee Eastman Plant model, a complex chemical plant simulator designed to study industrial processes and control systems. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach provides effective security and resilience of the CPS by consistently detecting anomalies and restoring the system with zero overshoot and minimal oscillations, eliminating violation masking and missed alarms. These findings highlight the effectiveness of our approach in fortifying critical systems against adversarial attacks and operational faults.

Control systems are used in a number of different industrial sectors and critical infrastructures, including manufacturing, distribution, and transportation. Failure of these control systems because of malware or other faults would be catastrophic for critical infrastructure and would result in significant losses. Adverse operating conditions, such as those found in networked control systems, exacerbate the likelihood of vulnerability to malware attacks. The prospect of severe adversarial assaults such as buffer overflow, conventional faults, and especially stealthy Ladder Logic Bombs is a serious cause of concern in Industrial Control Systems (ICS) with novel attacks such as Struxnet. Decoupled at-distance Electromagnetic spectrum-based monitoring of faults and malware is more robust and can likely be integrated into Industrial Control System frameworks. Our failure analysis and Machine Learning (ML) modeling approach is fundamentally different from traditional methods in that we propose a Hybrid Quantum Artificial Intelligence-based Electromagnetic (EM) Spectral domain-based analysis approach that is completely decoupled from the controller processor and can predict PLC fault/malware conditions, including stealth Ladder Logic Bombs and buffer overflow attacks. Further, robust Supervisory Control Systems (SCSs) that interface with programmable logic controllers (PLCs) are essential components of Industrial Control Systems (ICSs) that handle critical infrastructure. Modern industrial control systems, on the other hand, are made up of densely linked Internet of Things (IoT) nodes. Because of their networked nature, supervisory control systems are also susceptible to widespread cyberattacks. As a result, in the case of a coordinated attack on IoT control systems, the dependability of Supervisory control decision-making procedures is jeopardized and need to be decoupled from the attacks. This work also develops a Fuzzy inference Engine-based supervisory monitoring technology based on the characteristics of the Hybrid Quantum AI-based analysis of the EM spectrum to reduce industrial plant downtime and false alarms by localizing adversarial attacks/faults, risk severity levels, and impacted nodes, as well as having dependability and malware immunity in networked Industrial control systems. The Hybrid QAI technique improved prediction accuracy by up to 88 percent when identifying different control system viruses and defects in 6-stage pipelined processors. The Fuzzy inference engine in the Mamdani Inference System architecture has been found to reduce the risk of false alarms and downtime.

In order to ensure the reliable execution of the functional safety of industrial control systems and effectively resist more and more serious cyber attacks, it is necessary to explore a technical solution suitable for industrial control systems to effectively ensure the compatibility of cyber security and functional security measures. Taking typical SIL3 and SL3 industrial control systems as examples, based on functional safety measures, cyber security measures are analyzed one by one, and potential contradictions between them are identified. Coordination solutions of functional safety and cyber security are given by combining event tree and risk analysis. Finally, integrated protective measures of functional safety and cyber security of industrial control systems are obtained.The results show that the cyber security measures determined by the coordination method are compatible with the original functional safety measures, and the coordination method can be used to guide the cyber security design of industrial control systems.

The integration of Industrial Control Systems (ICS) with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) systems has resulted in tremendous increase in the number of ICS security incidents. Current ICS incident response practices can hardly be applied into ICS directly as the two systems are fundamentally different in terms of system complexity, criticality, flexibility and dependability. This paper addresses this challenges by proposing an ICS incident response decision framework. It is based on decision-making theory and has descriptive, predictive and prescriptive models that particularly address ICS incident response decision-making. This framework is implemented using a service-oriented architecture (SOA) that provides incident response decision making as services and offers standardized interfaces to integrate with existing incident management systems.

Today, the use of Ethernet-based protocols in industrial control systems (ICS) communications has led to the emergence of attacks based on information technology (IT) on supervisory control and data acquisition systems. In addition, the familiarity of Ethernet and TCP/IP protocols and the diversity and success of attacks on them raises security risks and cyber threats for ICS. This issue is compounded by the absence of encryption, authorization, and authentication mechanisms due to the development of industrial communications protocols only for performance purposes. Recent zero-day attacks, such as Triton, Stuxnet, Havex, Dragonfly, and Blackenergy, as well as the Ukraine cyber-attack, are possible because of the vulnerabilities of the systems; these attacksare carried by the protocols used in communication between PLC and I/O units or HMI and engineering stations. It is evident that there is a need for robust solutions that detect and prevent protocol-based cyber threats. In this paper, machine learning methods are evaluated for anomaly detection, particularly for EtherCAT-based ICS. To the best of the author's knowledge, there has been no research focusing on machine learning algorithms for anomaly detection of EtherCAT. Before testing anomaly detection, an EtherCAT-based water level control system testbed was developed. Then, a total of 16 events were generated in four categories and applied on the testbed. The dataset created was used for anomaly detection. The results showed that the k-nearest neighbors (k-NN) and support vector machine with genetic algorithm (SVM GA) models perform best among the 18 techniques applied. In addition to detecting anomalies, the methods are able to flag the attack types better than other techniques and are applicable in EtherCAT networks. Also, the dataset and events can be used for further studies since it is difficult to obtain data for ICS due to its critical infrastructure and continuous real-time operation.