Enabling the Experimental Exploration of Operating Procedures in Critical Infrastructures

Nowadays, the operation of Critical Infrastructures (CIs) relies on automated techniques for handling normal function. Human operators are far from been eliminated and they are still the most important actors in abnormal situations and contingencies. Modern testbeds for the experimental analysis of CI either totally ignore the human factor or include real Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) and software but require the presence of real human operators during an experiment. Although experimentation with human-in-the-loop can provide invaluable experimental data for human decision making and reactions, it would be impossible to do a systematic exploration of the vast parameter space in terms of possible human operator decisions, reasoning and actions. Therefore, in this paper we argue that existing testbeds should include simulated human decision-making capabilities in order to close this important loop that plays a crucial role in the outcome of cyber security experiments involving CIs. Furthermore, we propose an extension of our previously developed experimentation framework with generic Human Decision units that enable the integration of HMI and human operator models. The developed prototype was evaluated by assessing the impact of different human operator reactions during an attack against a cyber-physical infrastructure that is modeled with the IEEE 30-bus power grid.

SIATERLIS Christos;  GENGE Bela;  HOHENADEL Marc;  DEL PRA Marco; 

2013-08-13

SPRINGER VERLAG

JRC68329

1868-4238,   

http://www.springer.com/computer/security,    and,    cryptology/book/978-3-642-35763-3,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC68329,   

10.1007/978-3-642-35764-0,