On Cyber Vulnerability of MASS: A Simulation Experiment to Counter a Rudder Controller Attack

The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to underscore the vulnerability of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASSs) to cyber-attacks and (2) to emulate, using a concrete example, a cyber-attack on a rudder controller and its neutralization using a Kalman filter and a PID regulator. Accordingly, the first part of the paper will be based on a scoping review of relevant articles in the domain, including some MASSs projects, probabilistic modelling techniques to address MASSs' vulnerabilities, and cyber-security analysis. The second part of the work will deal with the simulation of a cyber-attack on the rudder controller testbed and its elimination. It is believed that the cyber-attack could occur through an unauthorized intrusion into the MASS Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system and PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) ladder logic code. The MATLAB/Simulink will be used for the experiment on the testbed. By optimization of the system parameters, the malicious interference caused by the arbitrary shaped periodic signal malicious intrusion into the control system will be eliminated. This will provide the optimal control of the analyzed MASS rudder controller, and a foundation for creating cyber-attacks prevention training data sets.