Abstract
The instrumentation and control (I&C) system of a nuclear power plant (NPP) employs a cybersecurity program regulated by the government. Through regulation, the government requires the implementation of security controls in order for a system to be developed and operated. Accordingly, the licensee of an NPP works to comply with this requirement, beginning in the development phase. The compliance-driven approach is efficient when the government supervises NPPs, but it is inefficient when a licensee constructs them. The security controls described in regulatory guidance do not consider system characteristics. In other words, the development organization spends a considerable amount of time excluding unnecessary control items and preparing the evidence to justify their exclusion. In addition, security systems can vary according to the developer’s level of security knowledge, leading to differences in levels of security between systems. This paper proposes a method for a developer to select the appropriate security controls when preparing the security requirements during the early development phase; it is designed to ensure the system’s security and reduce the cost of excluding unnecessary security controls. We have formalized the representation of attack patterns and security control patterns and identified the relationships between these patterns. We conducted a case study applying RG 5.71 in the Plant Protection System (PPS) to confirm the validity of the proposed method.
Highlights
The industrial control field has introduced digitalized systems and devices designed to increase ease of use by operators
We propose representing an attack pattern in the abstract by extending the attack surface concept. e proposed method uses the attack surface and elements related to the operational environment. ere are two operation states in the instrumentation and control (I&C) system of an nuclear power plant (NPP): the operating state and the maintenance state
We have proposed a systematic compliance-driven method in this paper. is approach supports the system developer in deciding in the early stages of development whether specific security controls apply to the system. e method can automatically choose a set of appropriate security controls for the system if the developer can identify the attack surface and the data that pass through it
Summary
The industrial control field has introduced digitalized systems and devices designed to increase ease of use by operators. Is government-led approach typically involves regulations and requires compliance by system providers and operators. In other words, it is a compliancedriven approach [3]. To comply with the regulation, a plant operator should consider providing security functionality in the development phase. E developer selects the security controls for the system after the system analysis and threat identification are performed, as this approach is supported by security experts based on risk assessment frameworks such as NIST SP 800–13 [6]. We propose a systematic method for selecting the security controls for a given system.
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