Graduate Program

Technology

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Semester of Degree Completion

2009

Thesis Director

Samuel Guccione

Thesis Committee Member

Rendong Bai

Thesis Committee Member

Peter Liu

Abstract

Industrial computing has been around for quite some time. It has just recently begun to show its true potential. Over recent years programmable logic controllers, or PLC, have become an integral part of an industrial operation; they have also become more and more powerful, faster and more accurate. One of the most current evolutions has been the integrated addition of Ethernet com1ectivity to these devices, previous to this a serial connection was used which is extremely slow and not always reliable. The addition of networking these devices has opened the door to many possibilities such as remote device control, increased data management, and real-time information.

Despite the amazing use of these devices, they need to be well protected, not just physically but on the hardware level as well. Anything that is connecting via Ethernet is not one hundred percent safe; there is always a chance that the device maybe hacked into from an unauthorized person. PLC's have been used to control multi-million dollar production lines that may consist of industrial level robots. If one of these devices were to become compromised, there can be huge consequences, such as loss of profits, as well as serious injury to human operators. One method of preventing this occurrence is by having the proper securities in place, this includes proper infrastructure of the network, as well as proper configuration of firewalls. This study will explore ways to achieve the proper security.

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