In response to the myriad of recent “cyber security” attacks, the United States Navy is developing the Resilient Hull, Mechanical, and Electrical Security (RHIMES) system. This is part of a deterrence initiative to safeguard shipboard mechanical and electrical control systems from hackers.
Machines like industrial plants, electric power grids, and ships can be as vulnerable to hackers as networks. We only need to look at recent attacks like the May 2021 shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline to understand this and to understand the havoc that can occur in the wake of a cyber breach.
In a 2015 media release, Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Mat Winter said “The purpose of RHIMES is to enable us to fight through a cyber attack. This technology will help the Navy protect its shipboard physical systems, but it may also have important applications to protecting our nation’s physical infrastructure.”
RHIMES is specifically designed to prevent hackers from disabling or taking control of PLCs (programmable logic controllers) that interface with the vessel’s physical systems like climate control, hydraulics, steering, and engine control.
“RHIMES relies on advanced cyber resiliency techniques to introduce diversity and stop entire classes of attacks at once,” said Dr. Ryan Craven, a program officer within the Cyber Security and Complex Software Systems Program in the Mathematics Computer and Information Sciences Division of the Office of Naval Research.
The system uses programming diversity and redundant backups to thwart attempts at hacking all systems at one time. This allows the system to remain operational in the event of controller failure. Such redundancy has been used in other systems to improve reliability before, especially where failure can be catastrophic. A notable example of this occurs within later GE Speedtronic systems, which are often utilized for power production and grid control.
“Functionally, all of the controllers do the same thing, but RHIMES introduces diversity via a slightly different implementation for each controller’s program,” Craven explained. “In the event of a cyber attack, RHIMES makes it so that a different hack is required to exploit each controller. The same exact exploit can’t be used against more than one controller.”
He added, “Vulnerabilities exist wherever computing intersects with the physical world, such as in factories, cars, and aircraft, and these vulnerabilities could potentially benefit from the same techniques for cyber resilience.”
According to US government 2018 FY data, RHIMES is considered a “successful collaboration with Siemens.” The technology now supports the NATO Sea Sparrow program.
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file: plc cybersecurity
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