Cyber risk to transportation, industrial control systems, and traffic signal controllers

Barry C. Ezell (), R. Michael Robinson, Peter Foytik, Craig Jordan and David Flanagan
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Barry C. Ezell: Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center
R. Michael Robinson: Old Dominion University Center for Innovative Transportation Solutions
Peter Foytik: Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center
Craig Jordan: Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center
David Flanagan: Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center

Environment Systems and Decisions, 2013, vol. 33, issue 4, 508-516

Abstract: Abstract This paper is a result of a cyber risk assessment with a goal of increasing awareness to operators of infrastructure, managers, and political leadership. Senior executives and political leaders have a very limited understanding of industrial control systems (ICS) and of the crucial role ICS provide to public/private infrastructure, industry, and military systems. Therefore, to accomplish our purpose, we conducted a cyber-risk study focusing on a bridge tunnel ICS and a cyber event that tampered with traffic light operation—two scenarios of concern for senior leaders. In this paper, we present the analytic approach, discuss our model and simulation, and analyze the results using a notational data and generic system description. As a result of this study, we were able to discuss the importance of controls systems with senior leaders. We were able to demystify what we mean by “cyber”, showing that it is possible through simulation to inject the effects of cyber scenarios of concern into simulations to assess impact. Most importantly, during a system audit, ICS operators with decades of engineering experience began to realize that the ICS is vulnerable to willful intrusion.

Keywords: Industrial control system; Cyber risk; Transportation simulation; Traffic signal; Controls; Event tree model; Incident chain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10669-013-9481-2

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