A Security Architecture for Railway Signalling

TL;DR

This paper proposes a security architecture for railway signalling systems, focusing on protecting safety-critical components against cyber-attacks through a compartmentalized defense approach.

Contribution

It introduces a novel security architecture with a taxonomy of attack vectors and a compartmentalized defense strategy for railway signalling systems.

Findings

The architecture enhances security against cyber threats.

A taxonomy of attack vectors relevant to railway systems is developed.

The compartmentalized defense concept improves system resilience.

Abstract

We present the proposed security architecture Deutsche Bahn plans to deploy to protect its trackside safety-critical signalling system against cyber-attacks. We first present the existing reference interlocking system that is built using standard components. Next, we present a taxonomy to help model the attack vectors relevant for the railway environment. Building upon this, we present the proposed "compartmentalized" defence concept for securing the upcoming signalling systems.