Security Threats against the Communication Networks for Traffic Control Systems

Actuated signal controllers (ASC) are widely deployed to control various intelligent traffic devices. However, there is not enough research on the security of the communication between a control console and the ASC. The communication protocol is SNMP for the management of the ASC. In this paper we will identity the major security threats against the SNMP-based ASC systems and propose possible defense techniques. First, we address the major attacks against the ASC systems, including UDP flooding attack, man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack, and VLAN hopping attack. Second, we launch these attacks against the ASC systems. Third, we demonstrate how to defend these attacks.