3 Security implications
Before looking at the security threats and possible solutions, quickly review how PLCs fit into the factory/Industry 4.0 world. In Figure 2, PLCs are in each element.
As factories have evolved, a few trends are worth considering for PLCs in the context of security [2]:
- Networked environments. In today’s automated factories, PLCs are no longer stand-alone components. They need to interact in real time with each other within different systems in a factory, and potentially with cloud metadata to make control decisions in real time. Network reliability and is a priority.
- Distributed control. The world has moved from centralized control brains in factories to a more distributed control model of several autonomous subsystem brains, sometimes even within the same machine. This places a premium on real-time communication integrity and network reliability.
- Deterministic communication. The need to respond to faults or failures, especially in an automated environment, places a premium on communication and processing reliability with low latencies.
- Minimal downtime. The push to minimize downtime has driven the demand for hot-plug features. A need exists for trust and integrity checks to potentially span multiple sessions, not just within the same session.