Risks and Vulnerability For Critical Infrastructure

Risks and Vulnerability For Critical Infrastructure

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Critical Infrastructure Risks and Vulnerability

Tools for Protecting SCADAs

Recently, there has been an increase in attacks on the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) to harm the U.S critical infrastructure. According to Nazir et al. (2017), several tools and techniques have been employed to protect SCADA from global attacks. One of the tools used is the Air-Gap Systems. Using this tool enables the physical separation of the SCADA system from the internet and corporate network. The other technique used to protect the SCADA from attack is avoiding default configuration on network and security appliances. This is achieved by changing factory passwords and enforcing systems of strong passwords. The SCADA can also be protected from attack by applying USB and portable device security to move files in and out of the SCADA system. The other technique used to protect the SCADA from attack is defending against the advanced persistent threats. This involves preventing the advanced persistent threats from entering the network and also detecting the threats that have already entered the system. Lastly, performing regular penetration and vulnerability assessment is another technique used to protect SCADA from attacks.

Incorporating resilience

Incorporating resilience into the SCADA system is crucial because it protects the system from attacks and failures. SCADA system resilience against threats and attacks can be incorporated by using the peer- to- peer technique which has minimum intrusion into the SCADA core system (Babiceanu & Seker, 2019). Using this technique prevents the loss of data resulting from the malfunction of the nodes. Also, this technique identifies and corrects attacks on the integrity of data. Incorporating resilience using this technique utilizes the middleware model that causes little change to the SCADA software system. Using the peer-to-peer approach does not replace the functionality of the SCADA system; instead, it supplements and increases the resilience of the SCADA system. Utilizing this approach also ensures the avoidance of critical public network infrastructure, which in turn increases the strength of the SCADA system.

References

Babiceanu, R. F., & Seker, R. (2019). Cyber resilience protection for the industrial internet of things: A software-defined networking approach. Computers in Industry, 104, 47-58.

Nazir, S., Patel, S., & Patel, D. (2017). Assessing and augmenting SCADA cybersecurity: A survey of techniques. Computers & Security, 70, 436-454.