Method and apparatus for the repercussion-free capture of data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10833965-B2
Application number	US-201515535184-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 10, 2015
Priority date	Dec 18, 2014
Publication date	Nov 10, 2020
Grant date	Nov 10, 2020

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for repercussion-free capture of data from at least one device is provided, which is arranged in a first network having a high security requirement, in a second network having a low security requirement, containing a requesting unit, which is arranged within the first network and is designed to request data from the at least one device in accordance with a request profile, a monitoring unit, which is arranged within the first network and is designed to monitor data that have been sent by the at least one device in response to the request and to transmit said data to an evaluation unit, an evaluation unit, which is arranged in the second network and is designed to compare the monitored data with the data expected on the basis of the request profile, and an alarm unit.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for the repercussion-free capture of data from at least one device, which is arranged in a first network having a high security requirement, into a second network having a low security requirement, having the method steps of:
requesting the data from the at least one device according to a request profile by means of a requesting unit which is arranged inside the first network,
eavesdropping the data transmitted from the at least one device to the requesting unit in response to the request inside the first network by means of an eavesdropping unit, wherein the eavesdropping unit cannot transmit any messages to the at least one device and cannot transmit any messages to the requesting unit,
transmitting the data to the second network,
comparing, within the second network, the eavesdropped data with the data expected according to the request profile, and
providing an alarm signal if the eavesdropped data differ from the data expected according to the request profile, the request profile containing predetermined requests and a timing scheme of when these requests are intended to be sent to the at least one device in the first network,
wherein during the requesting, eavesdropping, and transmitting steps, neither the eavesdropping unit nor the second network change the data transmitted in the first network, generate new data in the first network, or otherwise influence the first network.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , an alarm message being at least one of: displayed in a diagnostic network; an entry in a monitoring report being created; an active reaction being triggered in the eavesdropping unit; and an active reaction being triggered in the requesting unit as a result of the alarm signal.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2 , forwarding of the eavesdropped data or reading of the eavesdropped data being blocked as a result of the alarm signal.

4. The method as claimed in claim 2 , the eavesdropped data being buffered and being transmitted to the diagnostic network only after a successful check.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4 , a successful check being present when at least one of the eavesdropped data correspond to the request profile and the eavesdropped data have a valid cryptographic checksum.

6. The method as claimed in claim 4 , a substitute value or an error message being transmitted in the event of an unsuccessful check.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , the request profile having different request rules for at least one of: different types of data; different types of devices and individual devices.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1 , the request profile having a standard request rule for at least one of: different types of data; different types of devices and the individual devices themselves.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1 , an item of validity information being assigned to the eavesdropped data after a check.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1 , the eavesdropped data being transmitted to the diagnostic network only when the eavesdropped data have been received in a predetermined interval of time after the associated request.

11. An apparatus for the repercussion-free capture of data from at least one device, which is arranged in a first network having a high security requirement, in a second network having a low security requirement, containing
a requesting unit which is arranged inside the first network and is designed to request data from the at least one device according to a request profile,
an eavesdropping unit which is arranged inside the first network and is designed to eavesdrop data which have been transmitted from the at least one device in response to the request, wherein the eavesdropping unit cannot transmit any messages to the at least one device and cannot transmit any messages to the requesting unit, and to transmit said data into an evaluation unit,
an evaluation unit which is arranged in the second network and is designed to compare the eavesdropped data with the data expected according to the request profile, and
an alarm unit which is designed to provide an alarm signal if the eavesdropped data differ from the data expected according to the request profile, the request profile containing predetermined requests and a timing scheme of when these requests are intended to be sent to the at least one device in the first network,
wherein neither the eavesdropping unit nor the second network change the data transmitted in the first network, generate new data in the first network, or otherwise influence the first network.

12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11 , at least one of the eavesdropping unit and the requesting unit being designed to detect an alarm signal and to then independently restart, or the evaluation unit being designed to block forwarding or reading of the eavesdropped data after the alarm signal has been detected.

13. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11 , the evaluation unit being designed to store eavesdropped data, to check the data and to transmit the data to a diagnostic network only after a successful check.

14. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13 , the evaluation unit being designed to check whether at least one of the eavesdropped data correspond to the request profile and the eavesdropped data have a valid cryptographic checksum and to transmit only the successfully checked data to the diagnostic network or to transmit a substitute value or an error message to the diagnostic device in the event of an unsuccessful check.

15. A computer program product, comprising a computer readable hardware storage device having computer readable program code stored therein, said program code executable by a processor of a computer system to implement a method for the repercussion-free capture of data from at least one device, which is arranged in a first network having a high security requirement, into a second network having a low security requirement, the method comprising:
requesting the data from the at least one device according to a request profile by means of a requesting unit which is arranged inside the first network,
eavesdropping the data transmitted from the at least one device to the requesting unit in response to the request inside the first network by means of an eavesdropping unit, wherein the eavesdropping unit cannot transmit any messages to the at least one device and cannot transmit any messages to the requesting unit,
transmitting the data to the second network,
comparing, within the second network, the eavesdropped data with the data expected according to the request profile,
providing an alarm signal if the eavesdropped data differ from the data expected according to the request profile, the request profile containing predetermined requests and a timing scheme of when these requests are intended to be sent to the at least one device in the first network,
wherein during the requesting, eavesdropping, and transmitting steps, neither the eavesdropping unit nor the second network change the data transmitted in the first network, generate new data in the first network, or otherwise influence the first network.

Assignees

• Siemens Ag

Inventors

• Blöcher Uwe
• Falk Rainer
• Wimmer Martin

Classifications

• H04L43/065 Primary

  related to network devices · CPC title

• H04L63/0209 Primary

  Architectural arrangements, e.g. perimeter networks or demilitarized zones · CPC title

• H04L63/1433

  Vulnerability analysis · CPC title

• H04L63/0227

  Filtering policies (mail message filtering H04L51/212) · CPC title

• H04L43/08

  Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters · CPC title