U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded a grant to UL to help mitigate security risks for cybersecurity testing of the Internet of Things (IoT) and design gateways for industrial control system (ICS) applications.
The DARPA grant will enable UL to identify the main areas of an industrial IoT gateway that relates to ICS cybersecurity, as well as the data that migrates outside the ICS system.
UL will also develop a test methodology and a security profile requirements so as to provide technical protocols necessary for designing, building, testing, and procuring secure IoT embedded control gateways. This process will give users remediation techniques and recommended approaches to mitigate security issues, resulting in a more robust product, UL said in a press release. Users will be able to share processing resources including database management with real-time monitoring.
“Being proactive in addressing cybersecurity challenges for IoT emerging technologies enables the progression of sophisticated capabilities through system interconnectivity,†said Rachna Stegall, director of connected technologies at UL, in a statement. “UL is at the forefront of enabling safe innovation, and this grant allows us to extend our reach into an emerging area of risk.â€
“IoT gateways with connectivity into ICS, process control systems and distributed control systems in critical infrastructure will have a significant impact on the national security of these inherent systems if the gateways do not have a process to identify and address security risks,” said UL’s press release. “Defining a good process to evaluate and test IoT gateways with recommendations on design and development can help to alleviate these issues.”
