MS, University of Cincinnati, 2021, Engineering and Applied Science: Electrical Engineering

Black hat hackers can launch an attack anytime, on any type of system, whether the system is connected to a local network or to the internet. Therefore, the security for any cyber-physical system is a major concern. This common security threat is shared amongst many companies and other platforms across a variety of different industries that use interconnected devices controlled by programmable logic controllers (PLCs). Once an attacker has access to a system, he or she could cause devastating impacts such as cutting power to an entire city's traffic light system or stopping a city's water supply. Attackers' sophisticated methods are improving much faster than the security technologies we put in our PLCs and local networks. The present work utilized simulated attacks on a PLC testbed to investigate methods of providing an extra layer of security in two cases—one on the PLCs and the other one in the local network.

Committee: Carla Purdy Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Massoud (Max) Rabiee Ph.D. (Committee Member); Boyang Wang (Committee Member) Subjects: Engineering