Cryptographic Considerations for Automation and SCADA Systems Using Trusted Platform Modules

The increased number of cyber threats against the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and automation systems in the Industrial-Internet-of-Things (IIoT) and Industry 4.0 era has raised concerns in respect to the importance of securing critical infrastructures and manufacturing plants. The evolution towards interconnection and interoperability has expanded the vulnerabilities of these systems, especially in the context of the widely spread legacy standard protocols, by exposing the data to the outside network. After gaining access to the system data by launching a variety of attacks, an intruder can cause severe damage to the industrial process in place. Hence, this paper attempts to respond to the security issue caused by legacy structures using insecure communication protocols (e.g., Modbus TCP, DNP3, S7), presenting a different perspective focused on the capabilities of a trusted platform module (TPM). Furthermore, the intent is to assure the authenticity of the data transmitted between two entities on the same (horizontal interoperation) or different (vertical interoperation) hierarchical levels communicating through Modbus TCP protocol based on functionalities obtained by integrating trusted platform modules. From the experimental results perspective, the paper aims to show the advantages of integrating TPMs in automation/SCADA systems in terms of security. Two methods are proposed in order to assure the authenticity of the messages which are transmitted, respectively the study presents the measurements related to the increased time latency introduced due to the proposed concept.