Analysis and design of security mechanisms in the context of Advanced Persistent Threats against critical infrastructures

Abstract

Industry 4.0 can be defined as the digitization of all components within the industry, by combining productive processes with leading information and communication technologies. Whereas this integration has several benefits, it has also facilitated the emergence of several attack vectors. These can be leveraged to perpetrate sophisticated attacks such as an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT), that ultimately disrupts and damages critical infrastructural operations with a severe impact.

This doctoral thesis aims to study and design security mechanisms capable of detecting and tracing APTs to ensure the continuity of the production line. Although the basic tools to detect individual attack vectors of an APT have already been developed, it is important to integrate holistic defense solutions in existing critical infrastructures that are capable of addressing all potential threats. Additionally, it is necessary to prospectively analyze the requirements that these systems have to satisfy after the integration of novel services in the upcoming years.

To fulfill these goals, we define a framework for the detection and traceability of APTs in Industry 4.0, which is aimed to fill the gap between classic security mechanisms and APTs. The premise is to retrieve data about the production chain at all levels to correlate events in a distributed way, enabling the traceability of an APT throughout its entire life cycle. Ultimately, these mechanisms make it possible to holistically detect and anticipate attacks in a timely and autonomous way, to deter the propagation and minimize their impact. As a means to validate this framework, we propose some correlation algorithms that implement it (such as the Opinion Dynamics solution) and carry out different experiments that compare the accuracy of response techniques that take advantage of these traceability features. Similarly, we conduct a study on the feasibility of these detection systems in various Industry 4.0 scenarios.