A scalable distributed security infrastructure for industrial control and sensor networks
Flutra Osmani, Adriaan Slabbert · 2009
Geographically remote installations can not always be connected to their parent enterprise infrastructure, making centralised security impractical. Data confidentiality at the factory's Industrial Control and Sensor Network must be preserved to prevent industrial espionage or sabotage. We propose an application-level decentralised security architecture for enterprise networks containing IEEE 802.15.4 compatible wireless ICSNs. Our design relies on Zigbee, 6LowPAN or WirelessHART to provide security at the lower levels, and employs PKI for authentication and XACML for authorisation purposes. Finally, we describe a general use-case scenario to demonstrate our solution and propose further research topics.