Protecting Train Balise Telegram Data Integrity

ETCS (European Train Control System) is an automatic control system that controls the speed limits of a train. Correct operation of this system is crucial as malfunctions in the system can cause serious accidents such as train collisions. It is essential that train-ground communication is reliable as this ensures the smooth operation of trains and accurate train parking on stations. The ground-based balise is a passive device that is energized by a passing train, and then communicates with the BTM (Balise transmission module) attached on the train via telegram messages to update the train of its location. However, there are vulnerabilities present in the balise air-gap interface that can be exploited by malicious attackers to alter or manipulated information on telegrams. This paper describes malicious attacks such as changing the locality information of balise can be exploited from attacking the vulnerability of air-gap interface of the balise-based system. This paper therefore proposes three security designs to check data integrity on telegram messages so as to protect the train balise telegram data integrity.