In recent years, the constant technological evolution has made possible a large number of advances that would have been unthinkable years ago. In industrial environments, one of the latest developments that promises to stand out and is here to stay are virtual PLC.
The virtualization of these controllers will make it possible to decouple the hardware from the software, i.e. the software will be installed in the engineering stations, while the hardware will remain in another area outside the production area.
IDSs are passive elements that are in our network to ensure its security, but what would happen if all our communications were encrypted, or would this protection measure be enough to ensure that my network is protected? These questions and more will be discussed in the following article to provide solutions and advice focused on industrial environments.
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has experienced considerable growth in recent years, providing crucial improvements. However, it also has some limitations in terms of consumption, security, cost or scalability. In this blog, we will see how the appearance of LoRaWAN in this area can solve part of those limitations.
The growth of cyberattacks suffered in the industrial world is very worrying, since it is a sector that until recently the vast majority of its devices were not connected to the Internet, so the implementation of cybersecurity had never been thought of.
But with Industry 4.0 all that has changed, since almost all devices are interconnected or have Internet connection creating many advantages, but also some problem.
That is why experts in this field have seen the need to improve and implement cybersecurity in the industry, for this they have created different models and applications. Some of these can be seen in the following article.
With the industrial revolution of Industry 4.0, industrial processes have become more intelligent, and this has led to the deployment of a greater number of devices.
All these deployments usually have a common point, being the gateways, which, after being deployed, are responsible for the translation of some protocols to the TCP/UDP frame or simply send the information to the cloud.
Being a point that gathers a large amount of data and capable of providing intelligence to industrial processes, industrial gateways have become a very desirable target for attackers.
Currently, there is a constant evolution in the technologies and implementations made in Industrial Control Systems. On one hand, some of the most common implementations for the improvement of industrial systems infrastructures are digitalization and the use of cloud technology. On the other hand, the increase in communication protocols and IIoT devices (due to the growth of the Industry 4.0) generates a large volume of traffic that is difficult to control and secure.
The TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) network is a standard developed in Europe in the 1990s by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute), whose emergence came because of the management of telephone communications for extreme cases, in which standard communication via mobile might not work properly. Therefore, it can be considered as an alternative network for communications with emergency and security services to be always operational. TETRA unifies different digital radio interface alternatives for communications and serves as a standard for the construction of private mobile networks or PMR (Private Mobile Radio).
There are areas where the deployment of an industrial plant requires satellite communications such as those provided by VSAT (Very-Small-Aperture Terminal) technology. This technology allows the exchange of information through an antenna made up of different terminals, installed in remote locations with the connection capacity of a central hub, thanks to a satellite. Obviously, this technology has a cost that not all companies can afford, but it covers coverage needs in places where there are no other communication options. This type of communications is not only widespread in the industry, but its also sometimes used by banks to perform banking transactions at ATM’s. These communications are not so well known by many experts in the industrial sector, and it can be a good opportunity to bridge the knowledge gap so that readers can learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of VSAT communications.
