Authorization and Identity Management for Smart Factorys

Description

Smart factories achieve efficient and flexible production through interconnectivity and
dynamicity. This new paradigm demands an efficient concept for managing different entities
and their access rights. While mature concepts have been developed and adopted in IT
environments, there is a lack thereof in OT environments. This work assesses existing
concepts based on the requirements, derived from smart factory environments, IAM systems
and industrial standards, such as IEC 62443. The need for a new access control model
is identified based on an evaluation: Existing models cannot adequately meet the demands
for use in smart factories. In order to meet the requirements, an access control model is
introduced that achieves continuous enforcement with a focus on scalability, speed, usability
and flexibility. A corresponding enforcement architecture is developed and prototypically
implemented.