Mode Switching for Secure Edge Devices

Many devices in various domains operate in different modes. We have suggested to use mode switching for security purposes to make systems more resilient when vulnerabilities are known or when attacks are performed. We will demonstrate the usefulness of mode switching in the context of industrial edge devices. These devices are used in the industry to connect industrial machines like cyber-physical systems to the Internet and/or the vendor's network to allow condition monitoring and big data analytics. The connection to the Internet poses security threats to edge devices and, thus, to the machines they connect to. In this paper (i) we suggest a multi-modal architecture for edge devices; (ii) we present an application scenario; and (iii) we show first reflections on how mode switching can reduce attack surfaces and, thus, increase resilience.