TIOZ Howest

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Proeftuin ICI4.0

The living lab concept was created by VLAIO to support the development of advanced techniques and innovative initiatives within the fourth industrial revolution in Flanders.

The main objective of these living labs is to inform and sensitize as many companies as possible about advanced techniques in Industry 4.0.

In 2019, Flanders invested over 4 million euros in a second series of Industry 4.0 living labs, including this project ICI4.0. More information: www.industrie40vlaanderen.be

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Quick facts

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    Living Lab

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    Creation of the demonstrator: Fictile Company

Living Lab Innovative Cyber Security for Industry 4.0

Our living lab : Innovative Cybersecurity for Industry 4.0, with main partners the Howest and UGent, together with subcontractors Living Tomorrow vzw and Cyber Security Coalition vzw, will pursue three main objectives:

  • Translating the existing regulations concerning industrial network and information systems, in particular the NIS directive, into concrete and practical action points tailored to Belgian companies. The focus here is not only on the technical aspect, but also on the entire security policy.
  • Using a demonstrator, the technical security measures will be evaluated and demonstrated. The proposed lab setup will mimic a factory network at scale using industrial hardware (from the various manufacturers who are market leaders in Belgium). This network includes all control logic and interfacing present on a real factory floor (PLCs, remote-IO, HMI, actuators & sensors, scada software, ...) as well as all interconnections to office networks, remote access, connections to remote sites and more. A wide range of traditional (IT) and industrial (OT) specific security appliances (VPN, Firewall, Network Tap,...) are present and can be added modularly to this setup according to current needs. It allows us to remain flexible and demonstrate both the dangers of a network without attention to security and the performance and robustness of an optimal situation.
  • Exploring the use of innovative network monitoring techniques within industrial networks. Threat detection lies at the heart of any security policy and thus should certainly not be underestimated. Where traditional detection systems use fixed rules, innovative systems offer the possibility, through the use of machine learning (including RNN, encoder-decoder, tree-based and kernel-based online learning methods) to start detecting and reporting any anomalous, and potentially dangerous behavior.

To ensure the optimal dissemination of the project results, we foresee three different types of activities, each focusing on a particular target group.

  • General information sessions on the security implications for the industrial sector. These are typically sessions of a few hours where as broad a group as possible is made aware of the possibilities and dangers in an approachable way.
  • Technical workshops spread over several days will be used to transfer knowledge. These workshops will deal with the architecture as well as the implementation of the practical guidelines.
  • One-on-one collaboration with companies to evaluate their specific use case and work out a proof of concept implementation within the living lab.

Researchers

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    Gert-Jan Wille, Cyber Security Research & SOC Manager

Want to know more about our team?

Visit the team page