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OpenPLC based control system testbed for PLC whitelisting system

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Abstract

This paper proposes a security testbed system for industrial control systems. In control systems, controllers are final fortresses to continue the operation of field systems. Then, we need countermeasures of controllers. The whitelisting function is efficient in controller security. The whitelisting function registers normal operations in a list and detects unregistered operations as abnormal. We need a testbed system to check whether the whitelist function does not affect other functions of the controller. The industrial controller and its engineering tool are relatively expensive, and are customized with respect to controller vendors. To enhance the whitelist development, this study proposes a testbed system using OpenPLC which is an open-source software. This system is independent of controller vendors and is applicable for controller programming languages. We implement a whitelist based anomaly detection method for the testbed system and validate that the anomaly detection method operates correctly.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (CSTI), Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP), “Cyber-Security for Critical Infrastructure” (funding agency: NEDO).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Electro-Communications, 1-5-1, chofugaoka, Chofu-shi, Tokyo, Japan

    Shintaro Fujita, Kosuke Hata, Akinori Mochizuki, Kenji Sawada & Seiichi Shin

  2. Control System Security Center, 3-4-1, sakuragi, Tagajo-shi, Miyagi, Japan

    Shu Hosokawa

Authors
  1. Shintaro Fujita
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  2. Kosuke Hata
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  3. Akinori Mochizuki
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  4. Kenji Sawada
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  5. Seiichi Shin
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  6. Shu Hosokawa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kenji Sawada.

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Fujita, S., Hata, K., Mochizuki, A. et al. OpenPLC based control system testbed for PLC whitelisting system. Artif Life Robotics 26, 149–154 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-020-00635-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-020-00635-1

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