Securing IEDs against cyber threats in critical substation automation and industrial control systems

Author(s):  
Pubudu Eroshan Weerathunga ◽  
Anca Cioraca
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 044-046
Author(s):  
Beretas Christos P

Industrial control systems (ICS) are critical, as in these systems, cyber threats have the potential to affect, disorganize, change their mode of operation, act as an information extraction vehicle, and ultimately turn against itself. Creating risks to the system itself, infrastructure, downtime, leakage of sensitive data, and even loss of human life. Industrial control systems (ICS) are vital to the operation of all the modern automated infrastructure in the western world, such as power plant and power stations. Industrial control systems (ICS) differ from the traditional information systems and infrastructures of organizations and companies, a standard cyber security strategy cannot be implemented but part of it adapting to the real facts and needs of each country, legislation and infrastructure. These systems require continuous operation, reliability and rapid recovery when attacked electronically with automated control, isolation and attack management processes. Incorrect settings and lack of strategic planning can lead to unprotected operation of critical installations, as they do not meet the cyber security requirements. Industrial control systems (ICS) require special protection in their networks, as they should be considered vulnerable in all their areas, they need protection from cyber attacks against ICS, SCADA servers, workstations, PLC automations, etc. Security policies to be implemented should provide protection against cyber threats, and systems recovery without affecting the operation and reliability of operating processes. Security policies such as security assessment, smart reporting, vulnerability and threat simulation, integrity control analysis, apply security policy to shared systems, intrusion detection and prevention, and finally firewall with integrated antivirus and sandbox services should be considered essential entities.


Author(s):  
Yangha Chun

In the past, the general practice for the control system network that manages and controls industrial facilities such as electric power, gas, oil, water, chemicals, automobiles, etc. was to install and operate this as an independent system, but over time the practice has gradually shifted toward the use of an open and standardized system. Until recently, most industrial control systems consisted of an independent network, and the possibility of cyber threat infringement was very low. As information storage media such as laptops or USB are connected to the control system for maintenance or management purposes, the possibility of cyber infringement is increasing. When the use of the control system's operational information increases due to beingVinked with the internal business system network or the Internet, countermeasures against external cyber threats must be provided.This paper analyzes and organizes the cyber threat factors that exist in the linking section connected to the industrial control system and other networks, examining domestic and foreign incidents of hacking of control systems to identify the vulnerabilities and security measures for each scenario in the control system network linkage section. Through this analysis, a method is suggested for establishing a control network that secures both availability and security, which are important in the control system, as well as the safe relay system in the configuration of the linkage between the control network and the business network, while addressing the vulnerabilities in the structure due to long-term use of the control system.This study analyzes cyber threat factors and real-life examples of infringements with the aim of providing approaches that will ensure industrial control systems can be operated safely and the risk of cyber hacking threats that occur in connection with other networks can be managed, and suggesting cyber security measures for the control system connection sections.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Leonardi ◽  
K. Mathioudakis ◽  
A. Wiesmaier ◽  
F. Zeiger

This paper deals with Industrial Control Systems (ICS) of the electrical sector and especially on the Smart Grid. This sector has been particularly active at establishing new standards to improve interoperability between all sector players, driven by the liberalization of the market and the introduction of distributed generation of energy. The paper provides a state-of-the-art analysis on architectures, technologies, communication protocols, applications, and information standards mainly focusing on substation automation in the transmission and distribution domain. The analysis shows that there is tremendous effort from the Smart Grid key stakeholders to improve interoperability across the different components managing an electrical grid, from field processes to market exchanges, allowing the information flowing more and more freely across applications and domains and creating opportunity for new applications that are not any more constraint to a single domain.


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