Survey: PLC vulnerabilities and Industrial Intrusion Detection Systems IIDS

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are frequently used in manufacturing and critical infrastructures like water treatment, chemical plants, and transportation schemes. Citizens tend to take modern-day conveniences such as trains, planes or tap water for granted without considering the critical systems involved for their operations. Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are the essential components in many Industrial Control Systems that control physical processes. However, in recent years the security flaws of these devices have come under scrutiny, particularly since the widely discussed Stuxnet attack. Interrupting these industries could lead to disastrous consequences, leading to financial losses or even costing human lives. For that reason, researchers have been actively investigating the threats targeting ICS. To help the industry state-of-the-art to move forward and to provide information required to improve the security for these controllers, this work investigates the existing vulnerabilities that affect these vulnerable controllers as well as the last mechanisms of attack detection and mitigation for attacks. In this work we focused on recent works related to PLC vulnerabilities and IDS (Intrusion Detection Systems).