"Cutting off Stealthy Interlopers: A Framework for Secure Cyber-Physical Systems"
Researchers from Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) in Korea conducted a study in which they developed a framework for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs). The framework is resilient against a sophisticated type of cyberattack known as the pole-dynamics attack (PDA), which can make the physical system unstable. A PDA attack is performed by connecting to a node in the network of the CPS and then injecting false sensor data. If the sensors of the system's physical elements do not give proper readings, the control signals transmitted by the control algorithm to the physical actuators are incorrect, thus potentially causing them to malfunction and behave dangerously. The researchers adopted a technique called Software-Defined Networking (SDN) to address PDAs. The network of the CPS can be made more dynamic by distributing the relaying of signals via controllable SDN switches. The proposed approach also involves the use of a novel attack-detection algorithm embedded in the SDN switches to alarm the centralized network manager if false sensor data is being injected. This article continues to discuss the new framework developed to help CPSs detect and recover from sophisticated cyberattacks.