Work

Beyond Static Security: A Context-Aware and Real-Time Dynamic Zero Trust Architecture for IIoT Access Control

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: In industrial environments, cyber threats are escalating at an unprecedented rate, yet many existing security solutions fail to account for both contextual factors and the criticality of different network segments. This challenge is especially pronounced in diverse, large-scale, and highly dynamic Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) environments. This paper presents a dynamic Zero Trust Access Control (ZTA) model that adapts to real-time device status, network conditions, and user behavior to enforce context-aware, security-driven access decisions. At its core, our framework combines mathematical threat assessment with fuzzy logic-based state management (FSM) to continuously adjust trust levels and access permissions. We validated our approach, through a proof-of-concept using a cluster of virtual machines (VMs) to simulate a controlled environment. This setup demonstrates the ZTA models effectiveness in small-scale networks and provides a foundation for testing various access scenarios and evaluating security policies.

Source: IEEE Internet of Things Journal

DOI: 10.1109/jiot.2025.3579028

Authors: Fatemeh Stodt, Christoph Reich, Fabrice Theoleyre

Institutions: Furtwangen University, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Ingénieur, de l'Informatique et de l'Imagerie, Université de Strasbourg

Language: English

Topic: Access Control and Trust

Subfield: Computer Networks and Communications

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: green

Funders: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Ministry of Education and Research, Romania, Conseil régional du Grand Est