Autonomous Cybersecurity Testbed for Operational Technology Networks

In the ongoing era of Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), where the manufacturing and industrial processes are being integrated with information technologies including Artificial Intelligence (AI), advanced testbeds are a must to ensure an error-free, scalable and gradual transition. The network-integrated Operational Technology (OT) used in manufacturing industries also requires advanced testbeds to test and evaluate cybersecurity agents deployed to mitigate adversarial attacks. In this paper, we describe a testbed designed for testing and evaluating attack-resilient network agents, also known as blue agents. Using open-source software stacks and network protocols, we develop an easy-to-deploy, OpenStack-based network emulator that closely emulates industrial use cases. We also demonstrate the utility of this testbed by initiating various attack types that lead to OT plant instability. The various stages of the experiments, leading to this instability, can be detected and recorded using the measurement tools available within the testbed.