SDN-Enabled Virtual Data Diode

The growing number of cyber-attacks targeting critical infrastructures, as well as the effort to ensure compliance with security standards (e.g. Common Criteria certifications), has pushed for Industrial Automation Control Systems to move away from the use of conventional firewalls in favor of hardware-enforced strict unidirectional gateways (data diodes). However, with the expected increase in the number of interconnected devices, the sole use of data diodes for network isolation may become financially impractical for some infrastructure operators.