A security protection approach based on software defined network for inter-area communication in industrial control systems

Currently, security protection in Industrial Control Systems has become a hot topic, and a great number of defense techniques have sprung up. As one of the most effective approaches, area isolation has the exceptional advantages and is widely used to prevent attacks or hazards propagating. However, most existing methods for inter-area communication protection present some limitations, i.e., excessively depending on the analyzing rules, affecting original communication. Additionally, the network architecture and data flow direction can hardly be adjusted after being deployed. To address these problems, a dynamical and customized communication protection technology is proposed in this paper. In detail, a security inter-area communication architecture based on Software Defined Network is designed firstly, where devices or subsystems can be dynamically added into or removed from the communication link. And then, a security inspection method based on information entropy is presented for deep network behaviors analysis. According to the security analysis results, the communications in the network can be adjusted in time. Finally, simulations are constructed, and the results indicate that the proposed approach is sensitive and effective for cyber-attacks detection.