Proceedings 2002/2003 - IRSE

EURORADIO AND THE RBC 41
would be a problem as technology advanced; that
was the philosophy behind the layered approach.
J Mew (Thales) warned of the necessity for key
management.
J Harmer agreed with this stating that the object of
encryption was to prevent communication.
D Weedon (AMEC Rail) asked if there was a
mathematical target level of security to protect
against an unsafe event. He also suggested that if
the comparable level of safety was as good as, or
better than existing systems, no statistical analysis
would be necessary.
C Riley replied that although there is no specified
target, it should be noted that the RBC could not
override the interlocking. The potential for an
incorrect movement authority to be given does exist
and hence the need for encryption. He also agreed
that it must be a widely held belief that there were
safety benefits or development would not have got
this far.
J Harmer stated that a figure of one message
falsely accepted in 40 years within Europe was
generally quoted. Even with a determined hacker,
the likelihood of acceptance of a false message was
1 in 10,000 years.
R E B Barnard (Alstom) referred to a recent report
that concluded protection of communications
systems required doubling each year to prevent
malicious attacks and therefore GSM must be
over-engineered to provide this level of security over
the life of the system.
D Djezzar commented that whilst efforts are made
to provide system security by encryption, it is probably
easier to affect system availability simply by
bombarding the network with false information.
J Harmer agreed that availability presents different
hazards but loss of a base station to train link would
bring the train to a stand; a fail-safe situation. He
also challenged how often public networks fail
because of malicious attacks.
D McKeown (Independent Consultant) wanted
some reassurance that there were real benefits to be
gained.
C Riley reiterated that the technology can
overcome the difficulties and that there are real
opportunities to not only make substantial cost
savings but also provide network flexibility. The EPT
team is working to deliver a rollout programme using
the technology to the full.
The President thanked Mr Riley and Mr Harmer for
their paper and contribution to the subsequent
discussion.
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