Operator Resilience to Cyber Interdictions in Nuclear Power Plants

This paper reviews the role of reactor operators in detecting and mitigating cyber attacks in nuclear power plants. While the authors maintain the importance of defense in depth as the first strategy to protect against cyber intrusion in control systems, the authors review the importance of operators in preventing disruption to plant operations and ensuring the safety and integrity of the plant in the face of such incursions. This paper introduces the idea of a cyber concept of operations, in which operators treat cyber intrusions much the way they would other hardware faults at the plant. A recent pilot study is presented in which reactor operators were successful in navigating the plant to a safe state despite cyber spoofing across multiple scenarios. This paper concludes that dedicated operator aids would help ensure operator and plant resilience to cyber attacks.