Incorporating standards based security infrastructure in J2EE based secure SCADA systems

Migrating SCADA applications onto Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) Application Servers such as IBM¿s WebSphere and BEA¿s WebLogic provides access to the benefits of scalability, reliability, maintainability and security of this well tested and standards based platform. Unlike traditional monolithic applications the J2EE platform allows reliable, robust SCADA applications to be constructed by combining the iTapestry industrial automation middleware from Starthis with a wide variety of enterprise data analysis and reporting tools from established enterprise software vendors. The iTapestry middleware provides a bridge between enterprise applications on the application server and industrial automation hardware in networked or remote industrial settings. This project proposes to investigate different approaches to integrating into this architecture the full range of benefits of the J2EE security infrastructure. This will provide standards based support for secure communications between server and remote automation hardware and leverage standards such as J2EE role based security and the Java Authentication and Authorization Service to provide secure access control. This project will not develop new security infrastructure, rather it will integrate existing security standards with the only available middleware product, which links the J2EE platform with distributed industrial automation environments.