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In industrial environments there are a multitude of technologies, manufacturers, communications, etc. This article will reflect a small part of the protocols that use radio frequency (RF) communications. Thanks to these wireless communications, operators in the industrial world can send a simple order to obtain information on the status of a sensor or execute control orders in the industrial environment. The importance of a good implementation, in terms of cybersecurity of these communications, is quite high since, on occasions, some of the attacks that have been investigated have an impact on the physical world, giving rise to incidents that can even result in fatalities.

In the year 2022 and as is reflected in the article “Industrial Security 2022 in numbers”, cyberattacks in all industrial sectors have increased by around 30 % in the third quarter of 2022 and it is estimated that the number of organizations or industrial manufacturers victims of a cyberattack was around 40% in the last year. Especially in the industrial sector, the number of attacks has grown exponentially due to the massive introduction of IoT devices (it is expected to go from 13.5 to 21.5 million connected devices in three years) or more specifically about IIoT devices, which have been the main gateway for attacks as manufacturers have prioritized features and mass-production of devices over the security. In addition, this is compounded by planned obsolescence planned (increasingly present in this type of devices), increased interoperability and connectivity and the appearance of new types of malware and exploits which are much more effective.

After the establishment of the cloud technology in industrial environments to provide processes a greater intelligence, new technological challenges arise that give rise to technical implementation solutions such as edge computing. This strategy makes it possible to extend cloud environments to different locations for processing collected data from the environment locally and immediately. An example of this new technological paradigm can be seen in modern manufacturing plants where sensors (IIoT) generate a constant flow of data to prevent breakdowns, improve operations, etc. Given that amount of data that can be generated, it is faster and more profitable to process the data in a close position from the equipment rather than transmitting It to a remote data center.

PLCs, or Programmable Logic Controllers, have been part of industrial environments since the birth of automation. Given their evolution over time, thanks to greater intelligence, they have become a target of interest for potential attackers.