Research paper 1 SCADA Attack worldwide

In era of modern technology evolves and it change continuously over the time as well as it creates risk or threat. The emergence of Internet and worldwide technologies as these systems were tightly integrated with business systems and became more exposed to cyber threats. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) protocols are communications protocols designed for the exchange of control messages on industrial networks. A control system is a device or set of devices to manage, command, direct, or regulate the behavior of other devices or systems. By complexity, the reliable operation of modern infrastructures depends on computerized systems and SCADA systems. These control systems and devices communicated with each other almost exclusively, and rarely shared information with systems outside their environment. As more components of control systems become interconnected with the outside world using IP-based standards, the probability and impact of a cyber attack is at highest risk. Complexity of SCADA architectures, there is a variety of both wired and wireless media and protocols involved in getting data back to the central monitoring site. This enables implementation of powerful IP-base SCADA networks over mixed cellular, satellite, and landline systems. SCADA communications can employ a diverse range of both wired (lease line, dial up, ADSL, cable) and wireless media (cellular, WLAN, or satellite).

SCADA and Security issues In a real world, SCADA system can monitor and control hundreds to hundreds of thousand of I/O (input/output) points. SCADA systems evolve rapidly and are penetrating the market with a number of I/O channels. SCADA systems evolved from hardware and software in the 1970s to current systems that include standard PCs and operating systems, and Internet access. As we know that Security of control systems became a concern issue since the emergence of Internet and the rise in terrorist threats. SCADA systems are exposed to the same cyberspace threats as any business system because they share the common vulnerabilities with the traditional information technology (IT) systems. Also, most SCADA systems are not protected with appropriate security safeguards. The operating personal is lacking the security training and awareness. But we are not aware that threats against SCADA systems are ranked high in the list of government concerns. All the time, threats are often poorly understood and ignored, and the vast majority of organizations lag in realizing secure infrastructures. In complexly interactive systems whose elements are tightly coupled, great accidents are inevitable. Vulnerabilities and attacks could be at different levels- software controlling or controlled device, application, storage, data access, LAN, Internet, communications. While the exact number of cyber attacks against control systems is not known because many enterprises will not tell the public, a few recent cyber attacks and vulnerabilities are disclosed for SCADA systems. In 2005, Computer emergency readiness team (CERT) posted for the first time a few vulnerabilities for SCADA systems (CERT SCADA, 2007), although many more vulnerabilities are reported via other reports and sources (Byres et al., 2006; Geer, 2006). Although CVSS is an emerging standard, it has some limitations.

SCADA Attack incidents reported Even though, it is really hard to see the fact about cyber attacks due to their reputations and confidential information. Here is the following list summarizes the analysis results of all cyber incidents considered for this report based on type, origin, perpetrator, and motivation of the attacker. * 42% of all incidence were conducted by means of mobile malware * 61% of the perpetrators originated from external sources * 43% of the perpetrators backgrounds were malware authors * 43% had a motivational intention of malware infection.

Verge of improving security In fact, Internet and global e-business application requirements demand that companies increasingly implement computing infrastructures specifically designed for at least 99.999 percent availability. In response, SCADA needs to address increase security and support for high availability. Lately, the government, academia, and several SCADA vendors have initiated a strategy to support SCADA security. The common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) NM-SIG network monitoring is discussing the information systems and SCADA risks. In addition, the control systems security event monitoring working group at process control systems forum is working on the method to regularly collect statistics from SCADA and DCS networks that are being monitored for cyber security events. Their mission is to accelerate the design, development, and deployment of more secure control and legacy systems.

Conclusion It is really essential in this 21st century that implement of security features ensure for higher security, reliability, and availability of control systems. Therefore, the organizations need to reassess the SCADA control systems and risk model to achieve in depth defense for these systems. Increasing in threats against SCADA controls indicate that there should be more directions in the development of these systems.

Reference:

Eric Byres, David leversage and Nate Kube; “network security.” Byres security inc. May,2007<http://www.mtlinst.com/images/uploads/datasheets/IEBook_May_07_SCADA_Security_Trends.pdf>

Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, CERT/CC Satistics 1988-2003, <http://www.cert.org/stats>

Andrew, DPS Telecom. Retrieved june 9, 2009, from www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIU_wDVoEVE

Patel S, Bhatt G, Graham J. “Improving the cyber security of SCADA communication Networks.” July, 2009 <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=e4a98fd6-e639-44e1-9511-bef5beb31f10%40sessionmgr4&vid=3&hid=123>