Access Control for Smart Manufacturing Systems

Abstract

In the ongoing $$4^{th}$$ industrial revolution, a new paradigm of modular and flexible manufacturing factories powered by IoT devices, cloud computing, big data analytics and artificial intelligence is emerging. It promises increased cost efficiency, reduced time-to-market and extreme customization. However, there is a risk that technical assets within such systems will be targeted by cybersecurity attacks. A compromised device in a smart manufacturing system could cause a significant damage, not only economically for the factory owner, but also physically on humans, machinery and the environment. Strict and granular Access Control is one of the main protective mechanisms against compromised devices in any system. In this paper we discuss the requirements and implications of Access Control within the context of Smart Manufacturing. The contributions of this paper are twofold: first we derive requirements on an Access Control Model in the context of smart manufacturing, and then asses the Attribute Based Access Control model against these requirements in the context of a use case scenario.