Securing industrial control systems: Developing a SCADA/IoT test bench and evaluating lightweight cipher performance on hardware simulator

Abstract

This paper addresses the critical need for enhancing security in Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) networks within Industrial Control Systems (ICSs) to protect the industrial processes from cyber-attacks. The purpose of our work is to propose and evaluate lightweight security measures to safeguard critical infrastructure resources. The scope of our effort involves simulating a secure SCADA/IoT-based hardware test bench for ICSs, utilizing Modbus and MQTT communication protocols. Through case studies in remote servo motor control, water distribution systems, and power system voltage level indicators, vulnerabilities such as Denial of Service (DoS) and Man-in-The-Middle (MiTM) attacks are identified, and security recommendations are provided. To execute our work, we deploy lightweight ciphers such as Prime Counter & Hash Chaining (PCHC) and Ascon algorithm with Compression Rate (ACR) for secure information exchange between the plant floor and the control center. Evaluation of these ciphers on Raspberry Pi focuses on execution speed and memory utilization. Additionally, a comparison with the AGA-12 protocol standard for SCADA networks is conducted to underscore the efficacy of the proposed security measures. Our findings include the identification of SCADA network vulnerabilities and the proposal of lightweight security measures to mitigate risks. Performance evaluation of the proposed ciphers on Raspberry Pi demonstrates their effectiveness, emphasizing the importance of deploying such measures to ensure resilience against cyber threats in SCADA environments.