SafeSoCPS: A Composite Safety Analysis Approach for System of Cyber-Physical Systems (original) (raw)

Analyzing Safety of Collaborative Cyber-Physical Systems Considering Variability

IEEE Access, 2020

Cyber-Physical System (CPS) is co-engineered interacting networks of physical and computational components that operate on different spatial and temporal scales. The safety goal of a single CPS is usually achieved by applying hazard analysis techniques and by following the standard processes defined in ISO 26262 and IEC 61508. However, the safety property may not be satisfied when multiple CPSs collaborate due to complexity, uncertainty, and variability. Therefore, a technique that would provide a hazardous-free collaboration for multiple CPSs is required to preserve sustainability. In this paper, we analyze the hazards arising due to variabilities in collaborative CPSs. We extend the hazard analysis techniques (FTA, FMEA, and ETA) to explore hazards with variability and developed a fault traceability graph from our extended techniques to trace the faults considered by multiple hazard analyses in collaborative CPSs with variability. To justify our proposed approach, a case study on the human rescue robot system was conducted to analyze hazards emerging as a result of variabilities. Finally, a tool (CPS Tracer) was developed to model the FTA, ETA, and FMEA with variability (v_FTA, v_FMEA, and v_ETA). It also and generates the fault traceability graph (v_FTG) that represents fault propagation route. INDEX TERMS Variability, cyber-physical system, SOTIF, safety, hazard analysis techniques.

A Novel System-Theoretic Matrix-Based Approach to Analysing Safety and Security of Cyber-Physical Systems

Telecom, 2021

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are getting increasingly complex and interconnected. Consequently, their inherent safety risks and security risks are so intertwined that the conventional analysis approaches which address them separately may be rendered inadequate. STPA (Systems-Theoretic Process Analysis) is a top-down hazard analysis technique that has been incorporated into several recently proposed integrated Safety and Security (S&S) analysis methods. This paper presents a novel methodology that leverages not only STPA, but also custom matrices to ensure a more comprehensive S&S analysis. The proposed methodology is demonstrated using a case study of particular commercial cloud-based monitoring and control system for residential energy storage systems.

HVA_CPS proposal: a process for hazardous vulnerability analysis in distributed cyber-physical systems

PeerJ Computer Science

Society is increasingly dependent upon the use of distributed cyber-physical systems (CPSs), such as energy networks, chemical processing plants and transport systems. Such CPSs typically have multiple layers of protection to prevent harm to people or the CPS. However, if both the control and protection systems are vulnerable to cyber-attacks, an attack may cause CPS damage or breaches of safety. Such weaknesses in the combined control and protection system are described here as hazardous vulnerabilities (HVs). Providing assurance that a complex CPS has no HVs requires a rigorous process that first identifies potential hazard scenarios and then searches for possible ways that a cyber-attacker could cause them. This article identifies the attributes that a rigorous hazardous vulnerability analysis (HVA) process would require and compares them against related works. None fully meet the requirements for rigour. A solution is proposed, HVA_CPS, which does have the required attributes. H...

Safety-Critical, Dependable, and Fault-Tolerant Cyber-Physical Systems

Advances in Computer and Electrical Engineering

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) are co-engineered integrating with physical and computational components networks. Additionally, a CPS is a mechanism controlled or monitored by computer-based algorithms, tightly interacting with the internet and its users. This chapter presents the definitions relating to dependability, safety-critical and fault-tolerance of CPSs. These definitions are supplemented by other definitions like reliability, availability, safety, maintainability, integrity. Threats to dependability and security like faults, errors, failures are also discussed. Taxonomy of different faults and attacks in CPSs are also presented in this chapter. The main objective of this chapter is to give the general information about secure CPS to the learners for the further enhancement in the field of CPSs.

A Hybrid Dynamic Risk Analysis Methodology for Cyber-Physical Systems

Springer eBooks, 2023

Recent technological advances allow us to design and implement sophisticated infrastructures to assist users' everyday life; technological paradigms such as Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and Multi-modal Transport are excellent instances of those cases. Therefore, a systematic risk evaluation process in conjunction with proper threat identification are essential for environments like those mentioned above as they involve human safety. Threat modelling is the process of identifying and understanding threats while risk analysis is the process of identifying and analyzing potential risks. This research initially focuses on the most widely-used threat modelling and risk analysis approaches and reviewing their characteristics. Then, it presents a service-oriented dynamic risk analysis approach that focuses on Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) by adopting threat modelling characteristics and by blending other methods and well-established sources to achieve automation in several stages. Finally, it provides the qualitative features of the proposed method and other related threat modelling and risk analysis approaches with a discussion regarding their similarities, differences, advantages and drawbacks.

Risk Management and Standard Compliance for Cyber-Physical Systems of Systems

Infocommunications journal, 2021

The Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud technologies are increasingly implemented in the form of Cyber-Physical Systems of Systems (CPSoS) for the railway sector. In order to satisfy the security requirements of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), domainspecific risk identification assessment procedures have been developed. Threat modelling is one of the most commonly used methods for threat identification for the security analysis of CPSoS and is capable of targeting various domains. This paper reports our experience of using a risk management framework identify the most critical security vulnerabilities in CPSoS in the domain and shows the broader impact this work can have on the domain of safety and security management. Moreover, we emphasize the application of common analytical methods for cyber-security based on international industry standards to identify the most vulnerable assets. These will be applied to a meta-model for automated railway systems in the concept phase to support th...

Aligning Cyber-Physical System Safety and Security

Springer eBooks, 2015

Safety and security are two key properties of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). Safety is aimed at protecting the systems from accidental failures in order to avoid hazards, while security is focused on protecting the systems from intentional attacks. They share identical goals-protecting CPS from failing. When aligned within a CPS, safety and security work well together in providing a solid foundation of an invincible CPS, while weak alignment may produce inefficient development and partially-protected systems. The need of such alignment has been recognized by the research community, the industry, as well as the International Society of Automation (ISA), which identified a need of alignment between safety and security standards ISA84 (IEC 61511) and ISA99 (IEC 62443). We propose an approach for aligning CPS safety and security at early development phases by synchronizing safety and security lifecycles based on ISA84 and ISA99 standards. The alignment is achieved by merging safety and security lifecycle phases, and developing an unified model-Failure-Attack-CounTermeasure (FACT) Graph. The FACT graph incorporates safety artefacts (fault trees and safety countermeasures) and security artefacts (attack trees and security countermeasures), and can be used during safety and security alignment analysis, as well as in later CPS development and operation phases, such as verification, validation, monitoring, and periodic safety and security assessment.

Model-Based Risk Assessment for Cyber Physical Systems Security

Computers & Security, 2020

Traditional techniques for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) security design either treat the cyber and physical systems independently, or do not address the specific vulnerabilities of real time embedded controllers and networks used to monitor and control physical processes. In this work, we develop and test an integrated model-based approach for CPS security risk assessment utilizing a CPS testbed with real-world industrial controllers and communication protocols. The testbed monitors and controls an exothermic Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) simulated in real-time. CSTR is a fundamental process unit in many industries, including Oil & Gas, Petrochemicals, Water treatment, and nuclear industry. In addition, the process is rich in terms of hazardous scenarios that could be triggered by cyber attacks due to the lack of possible mechanical protection. The paper presents an integrated approach to analyze and design the cyber security system for a given CPS where the physical threats are identified first to guide the risk assessment process. A mathematical model is derived for the physical system using a hybrid automaton to enumerate potential hazardous states of the system. The cyber system is then analyzed using network and data flow models to develop the attack scenarios that may lead to the identified hazards. Finally, the attack scenarios are performed on the testbed and observations are obtained on the possible ways to prevent and mitigate the attacks. The insights gained from the experiments result in several key findings, including the expressive power of hybrid automaton in security risk assessment, the hazard development time and its impact on cyber security design, and the tight coupling between the physical and the cyber systems for CPS that requires an integrated design approach to achieve cost-effective and secure designs.

Hazard Driven Threat Modelling for Cyber Physical Systems

Proceedings of the 2020 Joint Workshop on CPS&IoT Security and Privacy, 2020

Adversarial actors have shown their ability to infiltrate enterprise networks deployed around Cyber Physical Systems (CPSs) through social engineering, credential stealing and file-less infections. When inside, they can gain enough privileges to maliciously call legitimate APIs and apply unsafe control actions to degrade the system performance and undermine its safety. Our work lies at the intersection of security and safety, and aims to understand dependencies among security, reliability and safety in CPS/IoT. We present a methodology to perform hazard driven threat modelling and impact assessment in the context of CPSs. The process starts from the analysis of behavioural, functional and architectural models of the CPS. We then apply System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) on the functional model to highlight high-level abuse cases. We leverage a mapping between the architectural and the system theoretic (ST) models to enumerate those components whose impairment provides the attacker with enough privileges to tamper with or disrupt the data-flows. This enables us to find a causal connection between the attack surface (in the architectural model) and system level losses. We then link the behavioural and system theoretic representations of the CPS to quantify the impact of the attack. Using our methodology it is possible to compute a comprehensive attack graph of the known attack paths and to perform both a qualitative and quantitative impact assessment of the exploitation of vulnerabilities affecting target nodes. The framework and methodology are illustrated using a small scale example featuring a Communication Based Train Control (CBTC) system. Aspects regarding the scalability of our methodology and its application in real world scenarios are also considered. Finally, we discuss the possibility of using the results obtained to engineer both design time and real time defensive mechanisms. CCS CONCEPTS • Security and privacy → Distributed systems security; Information flow control.

Formal Methods in Designing Critical Cyber-Physical Systems

2019

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are increasingly applied in critical contexts, where they have to support safe and secure operations, often subject to stringent timing requirements. Typical examples are scenarios involving automated living or working spaces in which humans operate, or human-robot collaborations (HRC) in modern manufacturing. Formal methods have been traditionally investigated to support modeling and verification of critical systems. In this paper, we review some of the main new challenges arising in the application of formal methods to modeling and verification of CPS. We do that by presenting two case studies (emergency response in a smart city and a smart manufacturing system), reflecting past work of the authors, from which some general lessons are distilled.