Description
Release v0.5.0 of coreLang replaced the System asset with the Hardware asset to more clearly delineate between hardware and software elements in the language.
This stricter segregation between hardware and software has significant ramifications for icsLang. This is because the IcsSystem asset which expands the now deprecated coreLang System asset is used extensively in icsLang. Conceptually, the IcsSystem asset was used to denote an entire industrial process or subprocess. The existing hierarchy descends from IcsSystems to IcsApplications/Controllers to Actuators and Sensors. A hackish loopback connection must be made from Actuators and Sensors to the IcsSystems that they belong to in order to adequately propagate disruptions back to the industrial processes/subprocesses.
This raises the question of how we wish to represent industrial processes and hardware in icsLang. Depending on the choice made the hierarchy in models will have to reflect this. One option would be to simply recreate the existing structure by having the existing IcsSystem asset extend the new coreLang Hardware asset and recreate the attack steps that were removed from the old System asset. Another option may be to depict the hardware and industrial processes through two distinct assets. A third possibility would be to have the IcsApplication represent industrial processes and create an IcsHardware asset that would be positioned below the Actuators and Sensors in our hierarchy.