Shelby Hall Graduate Research Forum Posters
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Description
The integration of Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) have made OT devices vulnerable to threats that have been successfully exploited with devastating results. Many modern techniques for hardening and securing enterprise IT systems are either incompatible with OT components in an Industrial Control System (ICS), reduce the efficiency of processes, or are prohibitively expensive to implement. Research in the area of ICS security focuses on a top-down approach, such as intrusion prevention by securing the perimeter of the network and hardening computer systems. This approach is useful in business IT systems, but full compatibility with OT components in an ICS or the processes that have been configured on an existing ICS remains a problem. There is, therefore, a need to evaluate methods for reducing vulnerabilities that could affect ICS components. This research will present a bottom-up approach to detecting data manipulation that focuses on OT equipment in an ICS. Evaluating real-time data from multiple sensors in a related process has the potential to detect data manipulation, but a threat actor can manipulate the devices that collect the data for all of the sensors if they are all on the same network. Adding additional sensors to a separate network could make manipulation of sensor data detectable by providing multiple streams of sensor data coming from the same device. Vibration sensors are used on electric motors to analyze vibration data to detect physical problems such as wear on shaft bearings. Experiments will be designed to identify a correlation between a motor’s rotational speed sensor and the frequencies from a separate vibration sensor on the same motor, then use the data from both sensors to detect anomalies in rotational speed in real time. Each sensor will be connected to separate networks to prevent undetectable manipulation of both sensors at the same time.
Publication Date
3-2025
Department
Information Systems & Technology
City
Mobile
Disciplines
Cybersecurity | Information Security | Other Computer Sciences | Systems Architecture | Theory and Algorithms
Recommended Citation
Green, Ricky and Black, Michael, "Detecting Sensor Data Manipulation" (2025). Shelby Hall Graduate Research Forum Posters. 30.
https://jagworks.southalabama.edu/southalabama-shgrf-posters/30
Included in
Cybersecurity Commons, Information Security Commons, Other Computer Sciences Commons, Systems Architecture Commons, Theory and Algorithms Commons