Towards Process-Oriented IIoT Security Management: Perspectives and Challenges

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) enables the connection of industrial operational technology (OT) with information technology (IT). However, the convergence of IT and OT has the drawback that machines become increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks. Therefore, security aspects for OT areas require special attention. The integration of Security Operations Centers (SOC) and OT offers a possible solution approach. A SOC is related to the people, processes and technologies that provide awareness through the detection, containment, and remediation of IT threats. The basis for integrating an IIoT-based SOC are well defined processes and their information needs. In this respect, the discipline of Business Process Management (BPM) offers numerous established methods, concepts and technologies for the systematic modeling and system-supported execution and analysis of processes. This paper aims to highlight the opportunities that the application of BPM concepts holds for IIoT security management. Based on the IIoT security management process, we show several exemplary ways how to leverage BPM methods for improving IIoT security.