Development of an Identification Method for Vital Digital Assets Selection on Nuclear Cyber Security

Regulatory activities for cyber security of nuclear facilities assist licensees to effectively establish the system to prevent, detect, and respond against the unauthorized removal and sabotage, which could lead to radiological impact, and to minimize the impact of cyber-attack. The KINAC (Korea Institute of Nuclear nonproliferation And Control) which is an affiliated regulatory body of ROK government has published regulatory standard, RS-015, to support Korean nuclear facilities establishing the cyber security system. Cyber threats to nuclear power plants have become a reality, and many cases have been reported that cyber-attack can have a physical impact. While there have been many concerns over the impact of the nuclear power plant on cyber-attack, there has not been much research on quantitative or systematic impact assessment. Through this study, we have conceptually confirmed that the failure of controlling digital assets due to cyber-attack affect the system and can affect initiating events of nuclear power plants and failure of accident mitigation. The vital digital assets are defined as sets of digital assets that can prevent failure of mitigation for accidents inducing a core damage of a nuclear power plant. The general concept of VDAs identification was described in this paper.