Security of railway control systems: A survey, research issues and challenges

With the rapid development of railway transportation, higher requirements for capacity are increasing and amount of communication, computer and control technologies are applied in train control systems which is the popular method for train control. The application of 3 C brings the enhancement of railway transportation performance. However, the number of internal and external cyber security threats is rising, which could lead to some railway accidents. On the other hand, safety is the core of the design process for railway but security is rarely considered due to the closure of traditional railway systems. As cyber security is threatening the normal operation of industrial control systems and the critical infrastructure, security issues of train control systems should be paid more attention as railway transportation play an important role for society and economy. However, due to the safety-critical characteristics, safety assessment and analysis works have been performed for a long time, but cyber security related works are rarely considered. In the paper, we demonstrate the security situation of train control systems based on the inherent features and the experience of other industrial control systems, where the technical defects and potential threats are summarized. According to the practical engineering experience, the current security protection strategies are illustrated, which shows the popular security protection methods are limited and cannot realize the defense-in-depth. Finally, some research challenges of security issues of train control systems are identified.