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PTC Communications: Cybersecurity Technology Review and Concept of Operations

Document Series
Technical Reports
Author
Federal Railroad Administration
Report Number
DOT/FRA/ORD-23/39
Office
RDI-23
Subject Positive Train Control, Security
Keywords
Positive Train Control, PTC, railroad, shared network, Interoperable Train Control Messaging, ITCM, cybersecurity, encryption, National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST, ELLI
Document

Researchers sought to determine how to improve the confidentiality of information passing through the Positive Train Control network without significantly affecting network performance. Phase 1 of the project reviewed requirements and assessed existing technologies. Phase 2 focused on implementation, migration, and deployment challenges. A recommendation to consider widely available algorithms covered by recognized open standards resulted in a project decision to focus on the National Institute of Standards and Technology Lightweight Encryption Algorithms and the ELLI algorithm covered by ISO/IEC 29192-4. Phase 3 identified technology gaps and areas for further research outside the scope of the project. Phase 4, the focus of this report, pulls together the work from Phases 1-3 to propose solutions to improve confidentiality, including a concept of operations for each solution.


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Last updated: Friday, December 8, 2023