In current industrial automation systems, it is critical to share information among the different processes. Most automation projects involve complex communication systems. The Internet and the use of Ethernet networks in industrial environments make it possible to integrate management and logistics with production processes from anywhere in the world. This has many advantages, but it also increases security risks. The authors of this paper analyze the vulnerabilities of the Profinet standard.

This work is divided into three main sections. The first is dedicated to the essentials of Profinet and a discussion of how it can be attacked. The authors describe some possible attacks on this protocol, presented in two scenarios: denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and man-in-the-middle attacks. The paper discusses an intrusion detection system (IDS) for industrial control systems that provides appropriate protection from information and communications technology threats. The authors propose a concrete approach for protocol-level attack detection using n-gram analysis. The approach involves two phases: learning normal system behavior and detecting attacks.

This paper shows the vulnerabilities of the industrial Ethernet protocol and asserts the necessity of network-based intrusion detection to protect industrial control systems. I recommend it to automation engineers and students. Readers do not need to be experts to understand the ideas presented.