Analyzing the security and survivability of real-time control systems

Many problems found in complex real-time control systems can be transformed into graph and scheduling problems, thereby inheriting a wealth of potential solutions and prior knowledge. This paper describes a transformation from a real-time control system problem into a graph theoretical formulation in order to leverage existing knowledge of graph theory back into the real world network being analyzed. We use a five-step transformation that converts an example electric power SCADA system into a graph model that allows for solutions derived from graph algorithms. Physical and logical characteristics of the SCADA system are represented within the model in a manner that permits manipulation of the network data. System vulnerabilities are identified and compared via graph algorithms prior to transformation back into the real-time control system problem space. The SCADA system analysis serves as an example of exploiting graph representations and algorithms in order to encapsulate and simplify complex problems into manageable and quantifiable models