Secure bootstrapping for next-gen industrial automation systems

Abstract The digitalization of industry and the convergence of IT and OT bring about the next generation of industrial automation systems which are expected to work with an orchestration of physical and virtualized components using a single converged network. The increase of complexity in such systems must be managed by an increase in automation for orchestration and management. However, bootstrapping such a complex system from out-of-the-box components is still a manual and error-prone process. We present a bootstrapping concept that brings up a system from out-of-the-box components to an operational solution with physical and virtualized components. The concept combines incremental network discovery with secure incremental bootstrapping of discovered physical components. The gained trust in the physical components of the network is then used to translate this trust into virtualized components. By attesting the trustworthiness of hosting infrastructure, the concept allows for virtualized components to be securely assigned a cryptographically secure identity that can be used in further application onboarding. Such securely bootstrapped systems are then capable to deliver the required adaptable, modular, and secure automation solutions of the future.