Securing Building Automation Systems

Security is a well discussed topic in computer networks and IT infrastructure. In contrast it is severely neglected in building automation systems. It is very common for new buildings to be equipped with smart systems responsible for heating, air conditioning, lighting amongst other systems. While they have a lot of positive features, there are also shortcomings. One of the huge problems is security. The used protocols got developed some tens of years ago and thus are not at all at the state of the art regarding security. Replacing old devices by new ones using secure protocols is not an option as this would mean a huge amount of costs. This means a suitable solution has to be found to counteract this problem and to improve the security in such systems as much as possible. In this paper different approaches are discussed. The different benefits as well as limitations of the solutions is shown. This enables the reader to get an overview about the different possible approaches to the topic.