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

Author

Listed:
  • 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)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Barry C. Ezell & R. Michael Robinson & Peter Foytik & Craig Jordan & David Flanagan, 2013. "Cyber risk to transportation, industrial control systems, and traffic signal controllers," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 508-516, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:envsyd:v:33:y:2013:i:4:d:10.1007_s10669-013-9481-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s10669-013-9481-2
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Basnight, Zachry & Butts, Jonathan & Lopez, Juan & Dube, Thomas, 2013. "Firmware modification attacks on programmable logic controllers," International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 76-84.
    2. Stanley Kaplan & B. John Garrick, 1981. "On The Quantitative Definition of Risk," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 1(1), pages 11-27, March.
    3. Shan, Xiaojun & Zhuang, Jun, 2013. "Hybrid defensive resource allocations in the face of partially strategic attackers in a sequential defender–attacker game," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 228(1), pages 262-272.
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    Cited by:

    1. Javier Cano & Alessandro Pollini & Lorenzo Falciani & Uğur Turhan, 2016. "Modeling current and emerging threats in the airport domain through adversarial risk analysis," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(7), pages 894-912, August.
    2. Zachary A. Collier & Igor Linkov & James H. Lambert, 2013. "Four domains of cybersecurity: a risk-based systems approach to cyber decisions," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 469-470, December.
    3. Perez, Yuri & Pereira, Fabio Henrique, 2021. "Simulation of traffic light disruptions in street networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 582(C).

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