Application Self-Protection and its Use in SCADA Systems in Critical Infrastructures: A Systematic Mapping of the Literature

Context: Industrial systems are facing an increasing number of cybersecurity threats, especially with the rise of Industry 4.0 and the integration of communication protocols. As a result, protecting critical industrial systems and production lines from cyber threats has become an increasing concern. Objectives: it is evident that the development and implementation of self-protection mechanisms for industrial systems play a crucial role in guaranteeing the security and reliability of critical infrastructure, which is why this work shows and analyzes the results obtained by carrying out a systematic mapping of the literature on application selfprotection technologies, their use in SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems in critical infrastructures and the use of RASP (Runtime Application Selfprotection) technology in industrial environments. Method: the creation and execution of a protocol that establishes a set of questions to be answered and the procedure for the search is detailed, and subsequently the application of filters for the selection of articles. Finally, the analysis is carried out in order to answer the questions posed. Results: it can be seen that the so-called self-protection technologies widely used in IT environments can be brought to OT environments, hence solutions such as intrusion detection systems (IDS), web application firewall (WAF) or In-memory software execution protection can be used in both environments. Conclusions: Although various types of self-protection technologies have already been implemented in industrial environments, it was not evident in the articles analyzed that RASP technology is used in them.