Integrating Safety, Security and Human Factors Engineering in Rail Infrastructure Design and Evaluation.

Conference: Bournemouth University, Faculty of Science and Technology

Abstract:

With the new emerging dependency towards the rail industry, there have been growing concerns on how to make this critical infrastructure more adaptable in this technological era of cyber attacks. Currently, the rail infrastructure is built around safety and human factors, but one important factor which has less attention is cyber security. In order to satisfy the security needs of rail stakeholders, there is a need to put together knowledge in the form of design framework by combining safety and human factors, with cyber security. The research problem this PhD thesis addresses is how the process-techniques and tool- support available in safety, security and human factors engineering can be integrated to provide design solutions in rail infrastructure.

This PhD thesis claims that proposed design framework is an exemplar by making three significant contributions. Firstly, it identifies the integration of concepts between safety, security and human factors engineering. Secondly, based on integration it pro- vides an integrated design framework where Integrating Requirements and Information Security (IRIS), use-case specifications informed Task Analysis (TA) using Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) and Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA), Human Factors Analysis and Clas- sification System (HFACS) frameworks are used to inform Systems-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA). This integrated design framework is tool-supported using the open- source Computer Aided Integrating Requirements and Information Security (CAIRIS) platform. Thirdly, the proposed design framework in the form of process-techniques and tool-support is implemented by rail infrastructure to determine the safe, secure and us- able design solutions.

This PhD thesis is validated by applying the design framework to three case studies. In the first, preliminary evaluation is carried out by applying it to a case study of ‘Polish Tram Incident’, where inter-dependencies between safety, security, and human factors engineering are present. In the second, the results are used to inform TA using use-case specifications format by prototyping the role of European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS) - Signaller, which provides human factors experts a chance to work in collaboration with safety and security design experts. In the final case study, with the support of representative rail stakeholders from Ricardo Rail is used to implement STPA on case study of ’Cambrian Railway Incident’.

https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/36959/

Source: Manual