Applicability of LTE Public Key Infrastructure Based Device Authentication in Industrial Plants

The security in industrial automation domain using cryptography mechanisms is being discussed in both industry and academia. An efficient key management system is required to support cryptography for both symmetric key and public/private key encryption. The key management should ensure that the device is verified before distributing the initial key parameters to devices. The software/firmware used in the device comes from manufacturers, therefore the initial authenticity of the device can be easily verified with the help of manufacturers. Mobile telecommunication is an industrial segment where wireless devices are being used for a long time and the security of the wireless device management has been considered through a standard driven approach. Therefore, it is interesting to analyse the security authentication mechanisms used in mobile communication, specified in Long-Term-Evolution (LTE) standard. This paper analyses the initial device authentication using public key infrastructure in LTE standard, and discusses if, where and how the studied solutions can be tailored for device authenticity verification in industrial plant automation systems.