Single and Combined Cyberattack Impact on Industrial Wastewater Systems

Industrial wastewater systems represent critical infrastructure involved in a non-profit societal objective. In such systems, the negative consequences (i.e., impact) resulting from cyberattacks often differ from for-profit systems and remain unseen unless investigated in detail. In this work, we use a four-stage impact analysis approach to explore the potential impact of attacks on a wastewater dechlorination system. More specifically, we use system and attacker models built and executed in UPPAAL-SMC to visualize the causes and propagation of impact. Furthermore, we use classical and statistical model checking to assess the existence and degree of potential impact. Our results reveal that combined data tampering and message spoofing attacks can often lead to different and more pronounced impacts than the attacks performed in isolation. Additionally, we highlight the physical, economic, and environmental aspects of impact on industrial wastewater systems and how to characterize them.