Designing a Testbed to Assess Secure Control of Cyber-Physical Systems

The world today increasingly relies upon the usage of smart devices which have the capability to communicate with other systems and the cloud. Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are one such application of smart devices making use of network mediums for augmented communication capabilities. Problems and risks arise when the messages being sent via the network are not secure, as this would allow adversaries to manipulate and ultimately compromise the entire system. In the past, implementing security to these system have been more reactive than proactive. This paper illustrates the design of a CPS testbed in which different security implementation methods can be tested upon and analysed. The abstraction of the CPS testbed and an adversary model that shows where attacks may occur are then discussed.