research-article

The Process Matters: Ensuring Data Veracity in Cyber-Physical Systems

Authors:

Marina Krotofil,

Dieter GollmannAuthors Info & Claims

ASIA CCS '15: Proceedings of the 10th ACM Symposium on Information, Computer and Communications Security

Pages 133 - 144

https://doi.org/10.1145/2714576.2714599

Published: 14 April 2015 Publication History

Abstract

Cyber-physical systems are characterized by an IT infrastructure controlling effects in the physical world. Attacks are intentional actions trying to cause undesired physical effects. When process data originating in the physical world is manipulated before being handed to the IT infrastructure, the data security property called "veracity" or trustworthiness will be violated. There is no canonical IT security solution guaranteeing that the inputs from a sensor faithfully represent reality. However, the laws of physics may help the defender to detect impossible or implausible sensor readings.

This paper proposes a process-aware approach to detect when a sensor signal is being maliciously manipulated. We present a set of lightweight real-time algorithms for spoofing sensor signals directly at the microcontroller of the field device. The detection of spoofed measurements takes the form of plausibility and consistency checks with the help of the correlation entropy in a cluster of related sensors. We use the Tennessee Eastman challenge process to demonstrate the performance of our approach and to highlight aspects relevant to the detection effectiveness.

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3654672
Wang SKo RBai GDong NChoi TZhang Y(2024)Evasion Attack and Defense on Machine Learning Models in Cyber-Physical Systems: A SurveyIEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials10.1109/COMST.2023.334480826:2(930-966)Online publication date: Oct-2025
https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2023.3344808
Rehman MBahşi H(2024)Process-aware security monitoring in industrial control systems: A systematic review and future directionsInternational Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection10.1016/j.ijcip.2024.10071947(100719)Online publication date: Dec-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcip.2024.100719
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Index Terms

The Process Matters: Ensuring Data Veracity in Cyber-Physical Systems
1. Applied computing
  1. Operations research
2. Information systems
  1. Information systems applications
    1. Process control systems

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cover image ACM Conferences

ASIA CCS '15: Proceedings of the 10th ACM Symposium on Information, Computer and Communications Security

April 2015

698 pages

ISBN:9781450332453

DOI:10.1145/2714576

General Chairs:
Feng Bao
Huawei Technologies Pte Ltd, Singapore
,
Steven Miller
Singapore Management University, Singapore
,
Program Chairs:
Jianying Zhou
Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore
,
Gail-Joon Ahn
Arizona State University, USA

Copyright © 2015 ACM.

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Published: 14 April 2015

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ASIA CCS '15: 10th ACM Symposium on Information, Computer and Communications Security

April 14 - March 17, 2015

Singapore, Republic of Singapore

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ASIA CCS '15 Paper Acceptance Rate 48 of 269 submissions, 18%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 418 of 2,322 submissions, 18%

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Cited By

Brand MNarayan ALehnhoff S(2024)Applying Trust for Operational States of ICT-Enabled Power Grid ServicesACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems10.1145/3654672Online publication date: 3-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3654672
Wang SKo RBai GDong NChoi TZhang Y(2024)Evasion Attack and Defense on Machine Learning Models in Cyber-Physical Systems: A SurveyIEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials10.1109/COMST.2023.334480826:2(930-966)Online publication date: Oct-2025
https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2023.3344808
Rehman MBahşi H(2024)Process-aware security monitoring in industrial control systems: A systematic review and future directionsInternational Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection10.1016/j.ijcip.2024.10071947(100719)Online publication date: Dec-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcip.2024.100719
Goknil ANguyen PSen SPolitaki DNiavis HPedersen KSuyuthi AAnand AZiegenbein A(2023)A Systematic Review of Data Quality in CPS and IoT for Industry 4.0ACM Computing Surveys10.1145/359304355:14s(1-38)Online publication date: 17-Jul-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3593043
Cui DWang ZXiao HShi Y(2023)Research on Multi-sensor Data Attack Detection Method for Industrial Control SystemProceeding of 2022 International Conference on Wireless Communications, Networking and Applications (WCNA 2022)10.1007/978-981-99-3951-0_70(637-647)Online publication date: 27-Jul-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3951-0_70
Wolsing KWagner ESaillard AHenze M(2022)IPAL: Breaking up Silos of Protocol-dependent and Domain-specific Industrial Intrusion Detection SystemsProceedings of the 25th International Symposium on Research in Attacks, Intrusions and Defenses10.1145/3545948.3545968(510-525)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2022
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Mallmann-Trenn FCavorsi MGil S(2022)Crowd Vetting: Rejecting Adversaries via Collaboration With Application to Multirobot FlockingIEEE Transactions on Robotics10.1109/TRO.2021.308903338:1(5-24)Online publication date: Feb-2022
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Yemini MNedic AGoldsmith AGil S(2022)Characterizing Trust and Resilience in Distributed Consensus for Cyberphysical SystemsIEEE Transactions on Robotics10.1109/TRO.2021.308805438:1(71-91)Online publication date: Feb-2022
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Azzam MPasquale LProvan GNuseibeh B(2022)Grounds for Suspicion: Physics-Based Early Warnings for Stealthy Attacks on Industrial Control SystemsIEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing10.1109/TDSC.2021.311398919:6(3955-3970)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2022
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Liu JLin XChen XWen HLi HHu YSun JShi ZSun L(2022)ShadowPLCs: A Novel Scheme for Remote Detection of Industrial Process Control AttacksIEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing10.1109/TDSC.2020.304626719:3(2054-2069)Online publication date: 1-May-2022
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