Virtualisation of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) for Cyber Security Use Cases - Understanding the Art of the Possible

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) form essential economic and life-critical elements of UK national infrastructure and play a key part in enabling the operation of complex Ministry of Defence (MOD) platforms (for example power generation and propulsion management systems on naval vessels).

Within these environments Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) facilitate the overall industrial process through the orchestration of physical actuators based on the logical processing of sensory and user input within the context of a pre-defined program.

The proposed project will investigate the feasibility of developing a vPLC that can orchestrate a Cyber-physical process.

The work will consider the approaches and techniques that have already been undertaken within this space with a cataloguing of the benefits and drawbacks.

Subsequent phases would look to develop a proof-of-concept vPLC that can manage a Cyber-physical process and benchmark this solution against an equivalent hardware implementation.

Analysis of this effort would provide an evidence-based breakdown of the true benefits and drawbacks of vPLCs as well as the Cyber Security relevant opportunities enabled by a virtual implementation.