Secure Industrial Radio
Certification
Closing the hidden security gap in industrial radio networks.

From Consumer Gadgets… to Critical Infrastructure

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Across the UK and worldwide, radio signals don’t just unlock doors—they control the hidden machinery that keeps society running.

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They are the invisible threads linking control rooms to remote, unmanned sites, carrying commands that start, stop, open, and shut down the essential services we rely on every day.

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✅ Start and stop pumping stations that maintain water pressure across entire towns
✅ Adjust chlorine dosing valves in treatment plants to keep drinking water safe
✅ Open and close sluice gates and flood defences during heavy rainfall
✅ Trigger emergency turbine shutdowns in energy networks to prevent overloads
✅ Switch critical circuits in substations powering hospitals, schools, and homes
✅ Control railway signals and level crossings guiding thousands of passengers safely
✅ Activate remote fuel or chemical injection pumps in oil, gas, and manufacturing sites

 

Each of these actions is triggered by a simple radio command. For decades, these signals have been trusted—reliable, easy to maintain, and “out of sight, out of mind.”

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The Hidden Risk

Much of the UK still relies on these legacy, unsecured radios—leaving critical services exposed to avoidable threats

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⚠️ Many industrial radio systems were designed in a different era, long before cyber threats were even considered.
⚠️ They still send basic, unauthenticated commands that can be intercepted and copied.
⚠️ With inexpensive 'off-the-shelf' tools like SDR dongles, attackers can listen, capture, and replay these signals—with no knowledge of the protocol.

 

And the consequences can be severe:

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❌ A single spoofed command could flood a village by activating pumps at the wrong time
❌ Contaminate a water supply by overdosing chlorine levels
❌ Shut down parts of an energy grid, causing blackouts
❌ Send false signals on a railway network, delaying or even endangering passengers

 

Because these commands are sent over the air, they leave no trace of tampering—the system sees them as legitimate.

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So how do we stop this?

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The reality is simple: a legacy radio designed without encryption, authentication, or replay protection cannot be made secure by configuration alone.

 

SIR Certification isn’t a software patch or a quick fix—it’s a measurable security benchmark. To meet it, the radio itself must support:

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✅ Encryption – ensuring every command is private and unreadable
✅ Authentication – verifying only trusted sources can issue commands
✅ Secure Key Rotation – preventing long-term exposure of compromised keys
✅ Replay-Attack Mitigation – blocking intercepted signals from being reused

 

Older radios simply weren’t built for these controls. That’s why SIR Certification requires radios with proven, integrated security features.

 

The good news? ELPRO radios already meet these standards. They have been deployed in critical infrastructure worldwide for years with Level 3 protection built-in—AES-256 encryption, authenticated firmware updates, secure key management, and replay-attack prevention as standard.

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While ELPRO radios are the benchmark, SIR Certification is vendor-neutral. Other radio manufacturers’ products can also be assessed against the same strict criteria, and if they meet the framework’s requirements, they too can achieve SIR compliance.

 

For the UK and other regions still running legacy, unprotected radios, upgrading to SIR-compliant technology is the only way to close the security gap and ensure the resilience of critical infrastructure.

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Why SIR Certification Goes Beyond Spectrum Regulation

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In the UK, Ofcom regulates and manages the radio spectrum, ensuring critical services like water and energy utilities have access to reliable, licensed frequencies.

They monitor for interference and investigate illegal jamming, but their remit stops at spectrum integrity—not cybersecurity. Ofcom does not enforce encryption, authentication, or replay protection on the data carried over those frequencies.

 

SIR Certification fills this gap. It focuses on the cybersecurity of the radio payload itself, introducing layered protections like AES encryption, key rotation, and command authentication—controls that go far beyond spectrum licensing. Where Ofcom ensures the airwaves are “clean,” SIR ensures the signals are secure.