Cyber Security challenges and Issues of Industrial Control Systems–Some Security Recommendations

Author(s):  
Omar EL Idrissi ◽  
Abdellatif Mezrioui ◽  
Abdelhamid Belmekki
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):  
Kayne Naughton

Interconnected devices and the true ‘internet’ cause security challenges to organisations with critical legacy systems. This article discusses a number of legacy issues around Industrial Control Systems and ‘untouchable’ legacy devices and proposes a number of easy and effective mitigations to the practices that expose them to the world.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 218
Author(s):  
Mohammed Alghassab

Monitoring and control systems in the energy sector are specialized information structures that are not governed by the same information technology standards as the rest of the world’s information systems. Such industrial control systems are also used to handle important infrastructures, including smart grids, oil and gas facilities, nuclear power plants, water management systems, and so on. Industry equipment is handled by systems connected to the internet, either via wireless or cable connectivity, in the present digital age. Further, the system must work without fail, with the system’s availability rate being of paramount importance. Furthermore, to certify that the system is not subject to a cyber-attack, the entire system must be safeguarded against cyber security vulnerabilities, threats, and hazards. In addition, the article looks at and evaluates cyber security evaluations for industrial control systems, as well as their possible impact on the accessibility of industrial control system operations in the energy sector. This research work discovers that the hesitant fuzzy-based method of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is an operational procedure for estimating industrial control system cyber security assessments by understanding the numerous characteristics and their impacts on cyber security industrial control systems. The author evaluated the outputs of six distinct projects to determine the quality of the outcomes and their sensitivity. According to the results of the robustness analysis, alternative 1 shows the utmost effective cybersecurity project for the industrial control system. This research work will be a conclusive reference for highly secure and managed monitoring and control systems.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marieke Klaver ◽  
Eric Luiijf

Information and communication technology (ICT) plays an important role in critical infrastructures (CIs). Some ICT-based services are in itself critical for the functioning of society while other ICT elements are essential for the functioning of critical processes within CIs. Moreover, many critical processes within CIs are monitored and controlled by industrial control systems (ICS) also referred to as operational technology (OT). In line with the CI-concept, the concept of critical information infrastructure (CII) is introduced comprising both ICT and OT. It is shown that CIIs extend beyond the classical set of CIs. The risk to society due to inadvertent and deliberate CI/CII disruptions has increased due to the interrelation, complexity, and dependencies of CIs and CIIs. The cyber risk due to threats to and vulnerabilities of ICT and OT is outlined. Methods to analyze the cyber risk to CI and CII are discussed at both the organization, national, and the service chain levels. Cyber threats, threat actors, and the organizational, personnel, and technological cyber security challenges are outlined. An outlook is given to near future cyber security risk challenges, and therefore upcoming risk, stemming from (industrial) internet of things and other new cyber-embedded technologies.


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