FORMAL METHODS AND CSIRT FOR THE RAILWAY SECTOR

Project Information

4SECURAIL

Grant agreement ID: 881775

DOI

10.3030/881775

Project closed

EC signature date 29 November 2019

Start date 1 December 2019

End date 30 November 2021

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 549 875,00

EU contribution

€ 549 875,00

Coordinated by

ARDANUY INGENIERIA SA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - 4SECURAIL (FORMAL METHODS AND CSIRT FOR THE RAILWAY SECTOR)

Reporting period: 2020-12-01 to 2021-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The project addresses OC S2R-OC-IP2-2019 for the use of FM and standard interfaces as two key concepts to reduce the time needed to develop railway signalling systems and the high costs for procurement, development and maintenance. FM are needed to ensure correct behaviour, interoperability and safety, and standard interfaces are needed to increase market competition and standardization, reducing long-term life cycle costs.
It also addresses the dramatic rise in cybercrime targeting Industrial Control Systems over the past years and the development of Intelligent Public Transport requiring a high level of integration of transport systems highlighted the need of cyber-security coordination between railway operators.
The project is divided in two workstreams:

WS1 "Demonstrator development for the use of FM in Railway Environment" will provide a demonstrator of FM and tools to evaluate the learning curve and to perform a cost/benefit analysis (CBA) of the adoption of FM, with the following objectives:
1) Development of the demonstrator;
2) Identification of a railway signalling subsystem;
3) Specification and evaluation of the cost/benefit ratio and learning curves of adopting the demonstrator.

WS2 "Support to implementation of CSIRT to the railway sector", establishing a CSIRT collaborative environment. The objectives are:
1) Define stakeholder requirements for a European Rail CSIRT collaborative activity;
2) Test and validate the draft CSIRT model;
3) Identify relevant platforms to support CSIRT collaboration and, based on requirements and CSIRT model, specify and adapt to meet CSIRT needs;
4) To test and update the CSIRT collaborative environment to ensure meeting user needs.

The conclusions of WS1 are that the ojectives were met in the exercising of the FM demonstrator prototype with the selected case study and in terms of identification of costs and benefit categories, to the development of the CBA. These conclusions were reported through D2.4 which describes the methodology to develop the CBA, addressing one of the objectives of WP2. Besides, D2.6 is aimed to provide the final outcome of the CBA and leaning curves, finally addressing and meeting the objective O2.3 of WP2.
Regarding WS2 all objectives were met as expected for both periods RP1 and RP2. The work done in RP1 focused on developing the early concept based on CSIRT model, both for functional and technical designs for the platform. The key goal of the CSIRT platform is to support the sharing of intelligence among the different national entities.
During RP2, the focus of the 4SECURail project under WS2 was on the implementation, testing and validation of the CSIRT platform following the specifications conducted along RP1. In this context, the collaborative CSIRT platform was developed based on MISP, an open-source and free platform led by a community of users and supported by the EU. The objectives O3.3 and O3.4 were achieved as shown through D3.3.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The results obtained through WS1 contributed to the definition of Formal development demonstrator prototype and, focused on the preliminary application of the defined demonstrator process to a selected fragment of the case study. The results of the activity are described and disseminated in D2.1 while the results of the activity in the second part are described and disseminated in D2.2. The case study was defined and the results are provided and disseminated in D2.3. Regarding the objective of specifying a CBA, the progress achieved in RP1 concerns the definition of cost and benefit categories on which the CBA have been performed by assessing their magnitude and value throughout a specific time horizon.
The results of the exercising of the FM demonstrator have been disseminated in D2.5 and their contribution to the structure and results of the CBA have been described and disseminated in D2.4 and D2.6. The full fledged CBA, assessing the economic impact of the use of FM in the development of standard interfaces against the Baseline Scenario represented by no use of FM has been described in D2.6.
D2.4 includes the description of the work performed from the beginning of the project, the survey and interactions with experts and the CFM complementary project (X2RAIL-2) through the 1st expert workshop (June 2020) with the aim to define the main cost and benefit categories addressed by the adoption of FM in railway sector.
D2.6 continued to work started with D2.4 and completed the analysis, providing the final results concerning the financial and economic convenience of the adoption of FM in railway sector, as per the case study developed.

The results obtained through WS2 contributed to define stakeholder requirements for a European Rail CSIRT collaborative activity, and to co-design with them a rail CSIRT model for open consultation. These results were disseminated through D3.1 which reported the results of the draft design of the 4SECURail CSIRT model for the European railway sector: the CHIRP4Rail concept (Collaborative tHreat Intelligence Platform for Rail) aimed to coordinate the different Rail Operators of Essential Services security teams in sharing cross border threat/incident information. This deliverable also reported and disseminated the results of all the activities developed towards the achievement of the first draft CSIRT model (CHIRP4Rail) dedicated to the European railway sector.
On the other side, through D3.2 it was disseminated the final version of the model designed in D3.1 after interaction and validation through workshops and interaction with key stakeholders. It also addressed the feedback from the PO to D3.1 and all the interactions with the CSIRT AB.
Finally, D3.3 reported and disseminated a final collaborative environment prototype, supported by its specification linked to user requirements (D3.1) and supported by annexed review of available platforms, along with reported testing results, which aimed to adress the objectives of WP3.

For dissemination purposes, a large number of activities have been carried out during the duration of the project, including: project's Kick-off Meeting, creation of a public website (with all the public deliverables published), the usage of social media (Twitter and LinkedIn), two press releases with wide media coverage, publication of results in relevant journals, the organisation of two technical workshops with relevant European railway stakeholders and the project's Final Event held in Paris.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Both challenges have been achieved. The socio-economic impact of achieving them can be summarised as follows:
1) Challenge 1:
1.a) Safety: Less cost of railway singalling systems will enhance the upgrade of old signalling systems to a higher level of safety for the railway transport, reducing the incident rates.
1.b) Mobility: The results will contribute to ease the development of new railway lines, improving the railway network and providing new ways of transport to citizens.
1.c) Public resources: The cheaper the new railway equipment is, the more public resources are available for other expenses.
2) Challenge 2:
2.a) Availability: Thanks to the development of a CSIRT collaborative platform, there will be less interruption in the railway operation due to computer security incidents.
2.b) Security: Private data and other sensitive information will be more secure if a collaborative CSIRT platform works.

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