Abstract
The role of cyber security as a defence mechanism to mitigate communication network vulnerabilities using vulnerability assessment and penetration testing (VAPT) is yet to be deeply explored in a small office/home office (SOHO) network setup such as a power line communication (PLC) network. Most enterprise based communication networks have implemented next-generation security applications to mitigate present-day malicious attack techniques, whereas SOHO networks are still vulnerable to these attack techniques due to lack of proper implementation of high cyber security applications. VAPT can be described as a security technique used to analyze communication networks by identifying and exploiting the communication network’s security vulnerabilities. VAPT helps security researchers to ascertain the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of the currently implemented communication network security measures. Network vulnerabilities are exploitable flaws that limit the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of a communication network. Therefore, we are motivated to conduct a research study that aims at optimizing the security of a PLC network setup by experimentally analyzing the PLC network for vulnerabilities using cyber security techniques. The methodology of this research work is based on three phases: Experiment preparation, vulnerability assessment, and penetration/exploit test experiment. The experiment preparation focuses on the preparatory confirmation of the research equipment, power line communication network setup and tests the efficiency of the PLC network setup. The vulnerability assessment experiment practically assesses the PLC network for known and unknown vulnerabilities, while the penetration/exploitation experiment practically evaluates the possibility of exploiting the detected vulnerabilities. Finally, This research study detected exploitable vulnerabilities at the physical, data link and network layer of the PLC Network with countermeasures to mitigate the detected exploitable vulnerability. With this research work, users and network security professionals can have a clear understanding of the security level of power line communication when used in setting up a communication network.