The digital twins are virtual recreations of real-world objects or processes. This innovative idea, proposed by Dr. Michael Grieves, has become increasingly relevant in various industrial sectors thanks to the advancement of technologies such as 3D modelling, the Internet of Things (IoT), the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), machine learning and big data. Its application makes it possible to simulate and analyse physical processes efficiently, thus contributing to the digital transformation of industry, also known as Industry 4.0.
The fundamental purpose of digital twins is to facilitate the understanding of how elements operate in the physical world. For example, in manufacturing, it is possible to create a digital twin of a factory and through simulations explore different scenarios: what would happen if a machine were modified, how would it impact production, and what would happen if a machine were changed? The digital twin provides answers before real changes are made to the physical environment, speeding up decision-making and optimising processes.
The agri-food sector is one of the most critical sectors today because it is one of the most important sectors for the country's economy, as it produces food.
This sector, like many others, is in continuous evolution. An example of this is the automation and digitalization of the many processes that are carried out. These new technologies bring many advantages, such as more efficient processes, less water consumption, detection of possible risks, etc. These great advantages also bring with them some problems, such as increased exposure to cyber-attacks.
Therefore, this article provides some basic knowledge to make the industry aware of the importance of implementing cybersecurity in their technologies.
UMAS (Unified Messaging Application Services) is a Schneider Electric (SE) proprietary protocol used to configure and monitor Schneider Electric programmable logic controllers (PLCs). While it is true that the protocol is related to this manufacturer, the use of the protocol is quite widespread in different sectors, especially the energy sector, as is obvious.
The article will focus on the technical breakdown of the protocol and the use of the protocol. The article will also show weaknesses, strengths and some technical vulnerabilities detected in this protocol.
In the electricity sector, it has always been necessary to use robust communications that allow proper communication, since a failure in this sector would cause a large number of losses, both economic and social.
In addition, with the technological advances, it is important also to have secure communications since the electricity sector is one of the sectors that currently suffers the most cyber-attacks. For this reason, in recent years different robust and secure protocols have been created.
One of these protocols is DNP3, created mainly for the use of substation automation and control systems, for the electric utility industry, although it has now also been used for other sectors.
Finally, in this article we want to explain in more depth the operation of this protocol and the benefits or disadvantages of using this protocol.
The industrial environment, especially the energy sector, is one of sectors that is suffering the most from cyber-attacks. This trend has been increasing in recent years, as this is one of the most information-sensitive sectors and can cause major problems, both economically and socially.
One of the best examples of malware attacks is BlackEnergy. This malware became known for being able to compromise several electricity distributors on 23 December 2015, causing households in the Ivano-Frankvisk region of Ukraine (a population of around 1.5 million) to be without electricity.
For this reason, due to seriousness of this type of cyberattacks, it is necessary to continue researching and investing in industrial cybersecurity, to reduce the damage caused by this type of cyber-attack in industrial environments.
The automotive sector is currently moving towards electric consumption, as society is becoming more and more aware of the problems that environmental pollution can cause.
One of the big challenges of this trend is how to charge electric vehicles, for which charging points are currently used.
But like most of today's technological devices, they will also need to have access to an Internet connection in order to be able to monitor in real time the use of the station, the customer's banking information, etc.
For this reason, in this article we want to talk about the different risks or cyber-attacks that these charging points may suffer and the problems they may cause, as this is a very important sector for society and one that is capable of managing very sensitive information
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.
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 physical protection of ports at hardware level within embedded systems allows control of the physical access interfaces, but what happens when these interfaces are necessary? Sometimes, access via JTAG or UART to systems is required for maintenance or modifications in different industrial processes. Thanks to these accesses, suppliers can access memory addresses to read or write, modify firmware, etc. Given the importance of these tasks, it is necessary to incorporate cybersecurity into the process and it is precisely on these measures that the subject of this article will focus.
Protection against fault injections, encryption of some memory sections within microcontrollers, or simple write protection are some of the defences that can be implemented to avoid problems within an industrial infrastructure
Energy efficiency alternatives are nowadays on everyone’s lips given the energy crisis that is plaguing the vast majority of European regions. In Spain, the energetic companies are following alternatives based on the use of different technologies to solve problems as complex as such as the management of surplus energy in some infrastructures. One of the alternatives that seems to have greater depth within the sector is the use of Virtual Power Plant (VPP). This new concept of energy management makes it possible to interweave different energy sources into a single flow of electricity demand, managed through a global solution that is usually deployed in the cloud due to the amount of data that has to be processed. The management system proposed by Virtual Power Plant is simple: Take advantage of surplus energy from microgrids to balance supplies to infrastructures that need this energy. With this gesture, large distributors can take advantage of up to almost 100% of the power within all infrastructures, such as electric vehicle chargers, solar farms, wind turbine farms, etc.