News

December 07, 2020

New White Paper "IT/OT Security for the Internet of Railway Things

Germany, Darmstadt | December 06, 2020

Today, sensors are an integral part of railroad applications. They continuously collect data to optimize traffic, passenger flow management, energy and maintenance efficiency. On the one hand, this supports the high availability and safety aspect; on the other hand, the possible analyses effectively promote the increase of traffic performance. However, the widespread use of sensors and their networking as Internet of Railway Things (IoRT) also evoke new attack vectors, which must be countered efficiently and in compliance with the standards, laws and rules in railroad traffic.

The white paper "IT/OT Security in Internet of Railway Things (IoRT)" explains applications of IoRT devices and possible IT security strategies that simultaneously keep in mind the use of data, the operation of the devices and the adaptability to IT security requirements. The basis of these strategies is the application of the HASELNUSS architecture. The white paper was developed within the framework of the Cybersecurity Working Group (AG CYSIS), an innovation alliance of TU Darmstadt and DB Netz AG. The white paper was developed together with the cooperation partners Fraunhofer SIT, CISCO, ÖBB and INCYDE.

Whitepaper

December 03, 2020

Article in the journal "Deine Bahn"

Germany, Frankfurt | December 01, 2020

The article entitled "IT-Sicherheitsarchitektur für die nächste Generation der Leit- und Sicherheitstechnik", jointly written by project team members M. Heinrich, C. Krauß, M. Zhdanova, M. Eckel, S. Katzenbeisser, D. Kuzhiyelil, J. Cosic, and M. Drodt, has been published in the December issue of the journal for railroad technology, operations, safety & personnel "Deine Bahn".

Article

May 09, 2019

safe.tech 2019

Germany, Munich | May 07, 2019

Christian Schlehuber (DB Netz AG) presented in the keynote at the safe.tech conference in Munich "From IT- to Operational Technology (OT) Security in the Context of Safety-certified Systems" the project to the audience of 180 people (from the domains of Safety and Security for Rail, Automotive and Automation). The presentation was received very positively and gave rise to various discussions about the proposed concepts.

Program

December 06, 2018

11. Workshop zu Fragen von Risiko und Sicherheit im Verkehr, SiT-Safety in Transportation

Germany, Braunschweig | December 04–05, 2018

Prof. Katzenbeisser, TU Darmstadt, gave the talk "HASELNUSS: Hardware based Security Platform for Railway Command and Control Systems" at the 11th Workshop on Issues of Risk and Security in Transportation at the TU Braunschweig, where he presented the results of the security analysis and the draft of the HASELNUSS architecture.

Slides

August 20, 2018

HASELNUSS welcomes a new partner

MEN Mikro Elektronik GmbH (https://www.men.de/) joins the consortium as associated partner.

June 27, 2018

Invited Talk and Paper at 4th International Workshop on MILS: Architecture and Assurance for Secure Systems (MILS-18)

Luxembourg | June 25, 2018

co-located with IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks DSN2018 (https://dsn2018.uni.lu/), 25-28.06.18

Christian Schlehuber, DB Netz AG, was invited to present security challenges faced by future railways and emerging security concepts required for their efficient, reliable and safe operation.

Maria Zhdanova, Fraunhofer SIT, presented the paper “A Reference Architecture for Integrating Safety and Security Applications on Railway Command and Control Systems” produced in a collaborative effort by the members of the project consortium H. Birkholz, C. Krauß, M. Zhdanova, D. Kuzhiyelil, T. Arul, M. Heinrich, S. Katzenbeisser, N. Suri, T. Vateva-Gurova, and C. Schlehuber. The paper introduces the Haselnuss Reference Architecture for IT-based railway command and control systems that allows uncertified security functions to safely reside on the same hardware platform as (SIL) certified safety functions using the MILS approach. The audience included railway service and solution providers, security engineers, and security and dependability researchers from different countries.

Paper link: The paper is available online at the Zenodo repository
Workshop page

June 19, 2018

Scientific Railway Signalling Symposium 2018

Germany, Darmstadt | June 13, 2018

At the second Scientific Railway Signalling Symposium in the Georg-Christoph-Lichtenberg Haus in Darmstadt, Prof. Katzenbeisser, TU Darmstadt, presented the status of the Haselnuss project. The interested public consisted of engineers and technically interested people from the rail industry who deal with railway control and command systems on a daily basis.

April 20, 2018

International Congress and Exhibition Rail Live 2018

Spain, Bilbao | April 18.–19, 2018

Christian Schlehuber, DB Netz AG, gave a talk at the International Congress Rail Live 2018, where he presented the HASELNUSS IT-security platform as component of future railway architectures.

International Congress and Exhibition Rail Live 2018

April 16, 2018

Invited Lecture at the TU Berlin

Germany, Berlin | April 16, 2018

Christian Schlehuber, DB Netz AG, gave an invited lecture at the TU Berlin on the topic "The myth of the closed network - IT-security for Control and Command Systems" and introduced the HASELNUSS IT-security platform in the context of the secure rail infrastructure.

March 16, 2018

3rd Annual Rail Cyber Security Summit

UK, London | March 13.–14, 2018

Markus Heinrich, TU Darmstadt, was invited to present the recent development of the Haselnuss project to an international audience at the 3rd Annual Rail Cyber Security Summit. Markus presented the conducted risk analysis and a first draft of the security architecture. The audience included railway signalling practitioners, railway operation managers, railway security engineers, members of national safety agencies, and ministry of transport staff from a multitude of countries.

Talk abstract
Event link

March 23, 2017

Cybersecurity for the railway of tomorrow

The new research project "Hardware-based security platform for railway control and command systems" – HASELNUSS for short – is developing a security system that protects against attacks and takes into account the long lifecycles of the railway infrastructure. The first practical evaluation of this novel solution will be carried out in the test center of DB Netz AG and in the railway operating field Darmstadt.

read more

February 23, 2017

Poster at the National Conference on IT Security Research of Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Germany, Berlin | February 14.–16, 2017

Prof. Katzenbeisser (TU Darmstadt) and Maria Zhdanova (Fraunhofer SIT) presented the motivation and goals of the newly launched "HASELNUSS" project to scientists and entrepreneurs from the IT security field in the poster session of the networking workshop or funded projects "High-tech for IT security".

Program of the conference