3-layer modelling method to improve the cyber resilience in Industrial Control Systems

Abstract

Cyberattacks against Industrial Control Systems (ICS), which play a crucial role in many industrial domains, could bring environmental and safety damages as well as huge economic loss. To decrease such cybersecurity risks, it is needed to improve the cyber resilience, that is the capability to respond to and recover from the threat in case cyberattacks occur. To this end, we propose the 3-layer modelling method that reproduces ICS by the actor, asset, and process models. The modelling approach based on Petri-Nets is used to express the state of all models in time series and quantify the availability of ICS influenced by cyberattacks, considering the behavior of personnel involving both cybersecurity and industrial operations. To demonstrate the effectiveness, resilience curves, which draw the availability as a function of time, are finally calculated for multiple cases of cyberattacks, assuming a hypothetical manufacturing factory. As a result, the production rate, which represents the availability of the manufacturing industry, is calculated in time series. The resilience curve can be used to determine what and when to do to minimize the impact of cyberattacks, which leads to the improvement of the cyber resilience.

Keywords

• industrial control systems
• cyber resilience
• resilience curve
• cybersecurity
• petri-nets