10 Examples of Cyber-Physical Systems
here are some examples you may come across in a range of fields.
Operational Technology
Operational Technology (OT) uses both hardware and software to change, monitor, or manage physical processes, devices, and events within an organization or environment.
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is a network of interconnected devices designed to boost industrial efficiency and productivity. IIoT enhances industrial processes by leveraging real-time data analysis, predictive maintenance, quality control, and seamless supply chain management.
Industrial Control Systems (ICS)
Embedded within virtually all industrial processes, Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are a type of CPS that manages, commands, and regulates industrial operations. They contribute to operations running smoothly, safely, and effectively.
Building Management Systems (BMS)
Building Management Systems (BMS) are designed to control, monitor, manage, and optimize various systems within a building, such as HVAC, electricity, security, and fire safety. As a type of CPS, BMS allow for energy-saving and cost-efficient building operations, and help preserve the safety, availability, and integrity of the operations and processes occurring within a facility.
Smart Grids
Integrating information and communication with power infrastructure, smart grids are a prime example of CPS. Smart grids offer real-time monitoring, decision making, and energy distribution, which helps evolve the conventional power grid into an intelligent one using digital technology, sensors, and software.
Smart Buildings
Smart buildings employ CPS to enhance comfort, energy efficiency, and security. By integrating sensors, control systems, and software, smart buildings manage lighting, ventilation, power consumption, and more. This optimizes resources and offers a more sustainable built environment.
Robotics
From manufacturing lines to surgical procedures, robotics have transformed various industries. This form of CPS provides enhanced precision, increased productivity, and improved safety.
Smart Transportation Systems
The transportation sector employs CPS for improving efficiency, safety, and sustainability. Transportation organizations rely heavily on this form of CPS for real-time traffic monitoring, route planning, autonomous vehicles, and more.
Medical Devices
In healthcare, CPS has transformed patient care with medical devices, or the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) that monitor patient vitals, dispense medication, or guide surgeries. These systems ensure a high degree of care and reliability, providing improved patient outcomes.
Smart Manufacturing
Smart manufacturing is a form of CPS that provides enhanced efficiency and flexibility in production processes. With real-time optimization of manufacturing operations leading to enhanced productivity.
How to Optimize Your Cyber-Physical Systems
With these challenges in mind, effective management strategies for CPS are imperative. Consider these strategies to protect your CPS.
1. Security
Security in CPS requires comprehensive solutions, including those that encompass physical and human factors. A thorough security strategy should include the following:
Exposure management: Determine the impact exposures could have on business operations and build a programmatic approach to continuous threat exposure management that is specifically designed for CPS.
Network protection: Without visibility into your network, it’s difficult to identify what each connected device is and how it communicates. Taking steps like network segmentation, optimization, and policy compliance monitoring is key for protecting your entire network.
Secure access: Traditional methods of remote access can be risky, making a secure access solution that provides privileged access and identity management imperative.
Threat detection: Utilizing a CPS protection platform that detects both known and unknown threats is foundational to protecting the security of operational environments.
In addition to these key areas, some other measures to consider include adopting are:
Zero Trust Architecture: This approach does not assume that a device or user, whether inside or outside the network, is trustworthy without verification, significantly reducing the potential for unauthorized access.
Instruction Detection/Prevention Systems (IDPS): These systems identify and mitigate cyber threats before they infiltrate the network.
Physical security: Measures like access control and surveillance systems also have a role to play since securing CPS isn’t just about digital security. Protecting the physical interface of these systems is also critical.
2. Performance and Reliability
Maintaining high performance and reliability of CPS involves continuous monitoring of your systems, including regular system health checks and routine maintenance. You can further enhance reliability through redundancy, in which critical components are duplicated to prevent total system failure in the event of a breakdown.
3. Interoperability and Integration
Effectively managing CPS includes ensuring interoperability and integration across all your systems. Using standardized protocols and establishing an integrating with current workflows can significantly reduce complexity. This allows for simpler data exchange and shared functions across your systems.
4. Optimization Techniques
There are many optimization techniques available to improve performance, efficiency, and longevity of your CPS. These strategies include system modeling, preventive maintenance, insights from AI optimization, and resource allocation to minimize energy consumption.
5. Human-Centered Design
Finally, human interaction with CPS must be taken into account. One aspect in which this is key is secure access, which allows users to interact with CPS remotely to operate, maintain, and update CPS in various environments. Because remote access can introduce new security risks, it’s imperative to adopt enhanced secure access security measures to protect your CPS.
Selecting a Cyber-Physical System Protection Platform
To directly face the challenges presented above and fully leverage the potential of CPS, organizations require robust strategies to protect and secure every part of their network. The first step is to evaluate your CPS protection platform to understand whether it is capable of handling every aspect of CPS security your environment demands.
Some of the most important criteria to look for in the selection process for a robust CPS protection platform include:
Industry expertise: Selecting a platform that displays industry expertise and a deep commitment to driving progress in the CPS protection sector is one indication of that platform’s merits. Award winning products and research teams, working with manufacturers to disclose vulnerabilities, and equipping customers with the means to leverage stronger protection against threats make a significant impact on your CPS protection strategy.
Deep visibility: It is only through multiple discovery methods that you can achieve deep visibility within all CPS devices connected to your network. This means choosing a platform that uses both active and passive discovery methods, including those that use unique or proprietary protocols, are air-gapped, or are otherwise unreachable through passive-only methods.
Broad solution set: Limited use-cases can be a sign that a platform doesn’t have the breadth of experience to address all your needs. Seek out a vendor with depth in their portfolio that supports all types of CPS across the XIoT, deployment needs, and network architectures. Your unique needs and environments should be supported by their offering.
Enabling business outcomes: The right data elements are critical to achieving better business outcomes. By giving you the option of managing, monitoring, and controlling your CPS security solutions in one place, the right solution can help you streamline risk management, apply compensating controls, respond to threats, and manage your overall security posture.
Deployment flexibility: Having the option to deploy cybersecurity products on-premises or in the cloud, with the option to function on user-supplied software, is essential. This can help cut costs that come with acquiring, maintaining, and updating hardware and gives you the flexibility to determine where and how to deploy the solution based on your unique requirements.
Claroty is an industry leader in CPS protection and trusted across industries to deliver unmatched visibility, protection, and threat detection. To learn more about Claroty’s protection methods, speak with a member of our team.