Troci is an international project to protect critical infrastructure such as power stations and water systems from cyber attack.
Troci (Towards Resilient Operation of Critical Infrastructure) is funded by the international Chist-Era programme of IT-related research.
The three-year project focuses on protecting the monitoring and control systems which make or inform operational decisions about infrastructure based on data from a large number of sensors.
Challenge
With increasingly complex and autonomous control systems, cyber attacks on sensors can have serious consequences. At the least, operators can lose reliable data on the state of the system. At worst, decisions are made on false data, with potentially disastrous consequences.
Infrastructure systems can be attacked deliberately, or by autonomous software which seeks out vulnerabilities. One of the first major cyberweapons, Stuxnet, was designed to attack control systems in Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities but went on to infect other industrial and energy systems.
In the nuclear power sector, plant developers are increasingly using digital control technologies which introduce additional cybersecurity challenges alongside existing physical security concerns.
Approach
The Troci researchers will take a multi-disciplinary approach to combining software and hardware solutions to enhance the resilience of critical control systems.
A hybrid solution can minimise the number of sensors and amount of information while maintaining sufficient coverage, protecting data from interference, and reducing the risk of hardware failure. A combination of innovative sensor technologies with machine-learning and AI systems will help increase software resilience, and rapidly identify anomalies which could signal an attack.
The researchers will work closely with industry users in the water and power sectors to understand their specific requirements and challenges, and ensure the proposed solutions provide genuine value.
The Troci project objectives are to:
- Develop and deploy a secure hardware infrastructure for instrumentation and control systems.
- Develop and deploy a secure and private software platform.
- Enhance the cyberphysical resilience of critical infrastructure through deployment of the hybrid hardware-software solutions.
Partners
The Troci project brings together researchers with expertise in electronic engineering, computer science, control and instrumentation, and civil engineering, and draws on the knowledge of engineers in the water distribution and nuclear energy sectors.
The Nuclear AMRC is leading Troci, and bringing its expertise in nuclear control and instrumentation systems and cybersecurity. The Nuclear AMRC’s work is supported by EPSRC under grant EP/Y036344/1.
The University of Vienna brings its expertise in sensor networks and distributed computing to lead the development of the C&I infrastructure.
University College Dublin brings interdisciplinary expertise in civil engineering and computer science, and will focus on applications in the water sector.
Holisun, a Romanian software company specialising in machine learning and cybersecurity, will lead software platform development.
The partners will regularly interact with industrial end users including Dwr Cymru Welsh Water as lead industrial supporter, and with the wider academic research community around critical infrastructure.
For more information, contact Dr Hafiz Ahmed, Nuclear AMRC head of controls and instrumentation.
See the Troci news page for the latest on the project.
