ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the risks associated with network connected built assets and building management systems. Globally, Construction 4.0 vision provides fully integrated and networked connectivity between digital infrastructure assets and physical infrastructure to form digital economies. However, industrial espionage, cyber-crime and deplorable politically driven cyber-interventions threaten to disrupt and/or physically damage the critical infrastructure that supports national wealth generation and preserves the health, safety and welfare of the populous. Whilst cybersecurity and digitisation have been widely covered within the extant literature in isolation, scant discussion has hitherto offered a holistic review of the perceived threats, deterrence applications and future developments in a digitized Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operations (AECO) sector transitioning into Construction 4.0. This chapter presents a comprehensive review of cyber threats confronting digital built environment and its critical infrastructure projects reliant upon a common data environment (CDE) to augment Building Information Modeling (BIM) implementation.
Typical practical explanations covered from cybersecurity literature will include: 1) distinct categories of hackers – to identify sources of such malevolent attacks; 2) motivations for the perpetrators/actors – to explain the commonly faced repercussions of such attacks; 3) varied reconnaissance techniques adopted – to explain how hackers locate cyber vulnerabilities. The chapter concludes with direction for future security opportunities in Construction 4.0 such as the recommendation to utilize innovative blockchain technology as a potential risk mitigation measure for digital built environment vulnerabilities. This holistic review presents a concise and lucid overview of cyber threats that will intellectually challenge, and better inform, students, practitioners and researchers in the digitized AECO field at a transition towards networked Construction 4.0 operations.
