Infrastructure and Tools for Testing the Vulnerability of Control Systems to Cyberattacks: A Coal Mine Industrial Facility Case

Abstract

Testing the vulnerability of information systems to cyberattacks is essential to ensure the operational security of organizations and industrial processes. In particular, it is essential to ensure the resilience of industrial processes, as a possible cyberattack can lead to process malfunctions and even process shutdowns, which can lead to substantial economic losses. The possibility of various attacks, e.g., ransomware, phishing, or advanced persistent threats (APTs), requires the evaluation of the effectiveness of cyberattack detection and incident response mechanisms. In industry, it is often impossible to carry out this type of test without risking system disruption, making it difficult to assess the true effectiveness of security features. This article discusses the issues concerned with testing the cyber resilience of a system operating in a real coal mine. First, this work briefly presents the hardware and software architecture used in the coal mine. Secondly, it describes the problem of replicating a real system in the laboratory and the necessary tools and methods used to implement a resilient system architecture. Finally, the scenarios of cyberattacks are detailed, and the obtained results are discussed.