Construction cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection: new horizons for Construction 4.0

Abstract

One of the key concepts of Construction 4.0 is cyber-physical systems. The construction industry is increasingly creating valuable digital assets, but it is also gradually using digital technology to plan, design, build, monitor, and control the physical ones. This makes construction sites and operations vulnerable to cyber-attacks. While the damage to digital assets can have financial implications, attacks on digitally-controlled physical assets may impact people’s well-being and, in worst-case scenarios, result in casualties. The problem is amplified by the emerging cyber-physical nature of the systems, where the human checks may be left out. The construction industry could draw inspiration from the work done in critical infrastructures (CI). Construction is the prelude of any socio-technical asset tagged as a CI. While most assets may not be critical in the CI sense, they are essential to a business’ operations and the people directly or indirectly associated with them. This study presents a literature review on the previous CI protection (CIP) efforts and construction cybersecurity studies to show their synergy. Recommendations based on well-established CIP processes to make construction more cyber-secure are provided. It is expected that this study will create awareness about cybersecurity practices within the construction industry. Ongoing work includes understanding where construction stands and developing a framework to address cybersecurity throughout the different project phases.

Public governance in the context of Construction 4.0: a systematic and comprehensive literature review

“…Governments can develop legislation and regulatory frameworks that set clear data protection, storage and transmission guidelines. These regulations can specify organisations' obligations regarding data handling, including the implementation of security measures, data encryption and data breach notification protocols (De Soto et al, 2022a). By creating a legal framework, governments can provide a foundation for trust and accountability, promoting the responsible and secure use of data in Construction 4.0 (Sonkor and Garc ıa De Soto, 2021).…”

“…Governments can develop legislation and regulatory frameworks that set clear data protection, storage and transmission guidelines. These regulations can specify organisations' obligations regarding data handling, including the implementation of security measures, data encryption and data breach notification protocols (De Soto et al. , 2022a).…”

Assessing the Digital Transformation Readiness of the Construction Industry Utilizing the Delphi Method

“…The availability of digitalization standards and regulation for pre-construction management [11,111,112] P03 Technology P03.01 Using machine learning during preconstruction [108,113] P03.02 Implementation for 3D mapping for BIM modeling [114,115] P03.03 Using blockchain technology with the organization's cloud system [116][117][118] P03.04 Utilization of drones for site surveying [119,120] P03.05…”

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“…Similarly, operating a process when the infrastructure is under assault or corrupted has potentially catastrophic safety implications (Catota et al, 2019;Firoozjaei et al, 2022). Hence, a country must develop a good critical infrastructure for security, such as building advanced laboratories ( de Soto et al, 2022). In this case, Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are the world's critical infrastructure and could affect human life in the future.…”