Technolution and the future of safe rail traffic: ERTMS and cryptographic keys
Technolution has been chosen to develop and manage the Key Management Center (KMC) for ProRail. The KMC is a key element in making the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) secure. OV-Magazine spoke to Paul Meerman of Technolution.
For the last eight years, Paul Meerman has been working for Technolution, a technology company that specializes in innovation in transport and infrastructure. Meerman’s role is to focus on anything to do with transport and railways, and he has been making an important contribution to the development and implementation of ERTMS. This new European system will ultimately replace the current railway safety systems and offers considerable advantages in the fields of safety, efficiency, and capacity. Before roll-out, the system will be embedded in the current rolling stock on the main Dutch railway network.
The role of cryptographic keys in ERTMS
Trains communicate with ERTMS through GSM-R (Global System for Mobile Communications – Railway), an international standard for wireless communication between railway systems and applications. Cryptographic security with digital keys is used to secure the communication. These keys, which are crucial to ensuring secure transmission of data, are generated and issued by the infrastructure manager, ProRail for example, and then loaded onto the ERTMS-related communication device on trains and along the railway network.
Managing these keys is a complex process that is executed by ProRail, railway carriers, and vehicle keepers. Technolution has developed an innovative solution to support this process: the KMC. This system, which is being developed and managed by Technolution, is a crucial application for the generation, request, and issuance of cryptographic keys within the ERTMS ecosystem.
Contract between ProRail and Technolution
ProRail and Technolution have signed a contract awarding responsibility for the development, delivery, and management of the KMC to Technolution. The contract has a fixed term of one year for the development and five for the management of the KMC, with an option to extend the agreement for two years at a time up to a maximum of sixteen years. In addition to developing and managing the KMC, Technolution will also provide internal training for ProRail staff and other stakeholders who will be working with the KMC.
This long-term collaboration underlines the trust that ProRail has in Technolution as a partner in this critical project. “Carrying out projects such as this one, based on cryptography and digital communication, is part of Technolution’s DNA,” according to Meerman. “We are specialized in dealing with critical infrastructure, and ERTMS can certainly be called that.”
Secure communication and the future of ERTMS
Within the ERTMS system, vehicles such as locomotives receive authorization messages from a Radio Block Center (RBC) through wireless communication. Because the communication is wireless, it must be robustly secured against possible threats. The specifications for this are clearly defined within ERTMS; they require the use of digital keys for symmetrical cryptography.
The KMC has an important role to play here by giving carriers the possibility to securely generate, request, and issue digital keys. The system communicates with other key management systems to mutually exchange keys. The ProRail KMC is responsible for generating and issuing keys for the Dutch RBCs, which in turn communicate with the trains.
Security is crucial
According to Paul Meerman, security is the number one priority in the introduction of ERTMS. “Everything is based on security. The introduction of ERTMS is a huge project and security is the primary concern,” he stresses. “Using strongly encrypted traffic means we can be sure that only authorized parties can send keys. This is a crucial element in realizing cybersecurity.”
The implementation of ERTMS is an important step towards a safer, more efficient, and more future-proof railway network in the Netherlands and in Europe. With its expertise in the fields of digital security and critical infrastructure, and with experts such as Paul Meerman, Technolution is the right partner to make a success of this project.
