Article

Educational Mobile Laboratory Unit Implementation to Study and Research Industrial Control System Vulnerabilities to Cyber Attacks

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Abstract

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) is a part of Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and a prevalent control system architecture that is commonly used for industrial automation. The SCADA systems play an integral role in large-scale processes for interfacing with transducers and machinery for real-time control and data acquisition. The increasing demand to integrate SCADA systems with remote networks and the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies raises concerns for information security specialists. These systems are known to have notable security vulnerabilities and may be subject to an increasing number of cyber threats. This research work provides educational guidance on how to build and further study ICS, including SCADA systems in academia. The mobile system introduced in this paper allows researchers to further investigate cybersecurity analysis of the ICS components. There exists a need and demand to better understand these systems and the inherent security threats that come with them. The details including system infrastructure, challenges faced during the establishment of the laboratory setup, student and faculty involvement, laboratory course objectives, student assessments, and industry support are reported in the paper.

Keywords: automation and control|information security|digital forensices|cybersecurity

How to Cite:

Yildiz, F., Pecen, R. & Dakeev, U., (2020) “Educational Mobile Laboratory Unit Implementation to Study and Research Industrial Control System Vulnerabilities to Cyber Attacks”, The Journal of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering 36(2).