Advanced Methodologies to Deter Internal Attacks in PTP Time Synchronization Networks

High accurate time synchronization is very important for many applications and industrial environments. In a computer network, synchronization of time for connected devices is provided by the Precision Time Protocol (PTP), which in principal allows for device time synchronization down to microsecond level. However, PTP and network infrastructures are vulnerable to cyber-attacks, which can de-synchronize an entire network, leading to potentially devastating consequences. This paper will focus on the issue of internal attacks on time synchronization networks and discuss how counter-measures based on public key infrastructures, trusted platform modules, network intrusion detection systems and time synchronization supervisors can be adopted to defeat or at least detect such internal attacks.