Technology for Visualizing and Analyzing Control System Traffic to Verify its Integrity

Control system security has become a serious concern in recent years due to the proliferation of cyber-attacks targeting critically important infrastructure like public utilities: electric power, gas, and water. As control systems increasingly rely on operating systems and standard protocols that are both open and versatile, cyber-attacks are very common now with various infection routes not only via the Internet but also via USB memory devices and other media, making it difficult to prevent all malware infections. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a technology that can quickly detect security incidents. Such technology should not have an impact on control system availability (stable, continuous operation) as these systems need to keep operating without interruption for very long periods, even as long as several decades.

This technology has been integrated in Yokogawa’s cyber security support service for control systems (URL: http://www.yokogawa.com/vps/gsv/gsv-netck-en.htm), and is expected to make the control systems used in critically important infrastructure more secure. With the aim of making the world a safer place, we will continue researching and developing cyber security technologies for control systems.

A system developed by NICT to visualize and analyze traffic in real time. NIRVANA reduces the load of managing large-scale, complex networks by visualizing traffic. It enables action to be taken quickly when a failure occurs. NIRVANA is a NICT technology that is available for transfer under a license agreement.