(Gen)AI Versus (Gen)AI in Industrial Control Cybersecurity

(Gen)AI is emerging as a powerful force transforming industrial control and business/enterprise productivity. This paper investigates the challenges and opportunities stemming from (Gen)AI on industrial control systems (ICSs) security within the framework of the Cyber Kill Chain (CKC). Leveraging the CKC framework, we examine how (Gen)AI enables attackers to automate each phase of the CKC - reconnaissance, weaponization, delivery, exploitation, installation, command and control, and action on objectives. Conversely, (Gen)AI also empowers defenders to employ advanced techniques such as AI-powered firewalls, anomaly detection, and automated incident response to thwart cyber threats effectively. We study how this defense dynamic using (Gen)AI operates within each phase of the Cyber Kill Chain for ICSs. We back up our attack-defense dynamics study with simulations on real-world ICS scenarios. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first cybersecurity study in the joint space of ICSs, the Cyber Kill Chain (CKC), and (Gen)AI.