Analysis of cyber security for industrial control systems

Abstract

Industrial control systems (ICS) are specialized information systems that differs significantly form traditional information systems used in the IT world. The main use of ICS is to manage critical infrastructures such as, Oil and Natural Gas facilities, nuclear plants, smart grids, water and waste water … etc. ICS have many unique functional characteristics, including a need for real-time response and extremely high availability, predictability, reliability, as well as distributed intelligence. Which for, many advanced computing, communication and internet technologies were integrated to the ICS to cover more costumers requirements such as mobility, data analytics, extensibility … etc The integration of these technologies makes from the ICS open systems to the external world; this openness exposes the critical infrastructures to several Cyber security critical issues. Nowadays, cyber security emerges to be one of the most critical issues because of the immediate impact and the high cost of cyber-attacks. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of cyber security issues for ICS. Specifically we focus on discussing and reviewing the different types and architectures of an ICS, security requirements, different threats attacks, and existing solutions to secure Industrial control systems. By this survey, we desire to provide a clear understanding of security issues in ICS and clarify the different research issues to solve in the future.