Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System Attacks Essay

event of a catastrophic disruption (fire) or disaster (hurricane) and a major IT or data center outage occurs

The cybersecurity simulation rounds in UMUC?s Cybersecurity Master 's degree capstone are an integral part of the learning program. The simulation rounds expose students to real world incidents in a cyber representation of the US. In this environment students are provided a chance to gain experience in a setting where mistakes are far less impactful than those made in the real world. The environment includes five critical infrastructure sectors; DTL Power, Federal Government, Hytema Defense, Mistral Bank and Avisitel Telecom. The control decisions made by each have the potential to impact other groups operating within the environment.

In Western power grid attack, APT was well organized. They used both active and passive reconnaissance methods to gather information. We have found the traces of attackers IP in the network logs provided by Intelligence services. This tells us that attackers had used Active Reconnaissance to get network

There are three main areas identified as threat vectors for cyber security in relation to CIP: IT networks, insider threats, and equipment and software. Normally, ICS operate on an internal network, called OT (Operational Technology). Occasionally, this isolated network requires a connection to the organization’s corporate network (IT) for routine operation and management. As displayed in the Ukraine blackout, cyber threats infiltrate an organization’s IT systems in order to access ICS networks on the OT network. The methods used to achieve access are often not complex procedures and “can be achieved using a wide array of methods, such as spear phishing, malicious URLs, drive-by attacks” (p. 1). Upon infiltration of an IT network, the threat searches for a lapse in the cyber security program in order to access the OT networks that regulate CI.

The author describe the oil and gas industries are prime targets for cyber criminals because of the pressure to increase productivity and reduce costs through network integration. The standard practice for most of this companies were created without thinking they were to become targets of criminals and terrorist. Oil and gas industries, are control via internet based technologies, this mean the information is sharing in real time form place to place, this gives criminal easy access to these companies. It also mention in the article that oil companies are attack as many of 500 hack attacks a week.

The 2003 northeast blackout that saw about 50 million people from the northeast US and southeast Canada lose power for about 2 days at the cost of $6 billion dollars according to JR Minkel (Minkle) and was the biggest blackout in North American history (Minkle). The disaster lead to a report that showed the blackout was caused by a combination of human error and equipment failure. To prevent issues like this in the future a “smart grid” needs to be developed that would monitor and repair itself in the event of problems. Essentially computers and applications would be the first responder when there is an equipment failure on the grid. The problem with this solution is that by placing more of the control of the power grid into the hands of computers and applications, it opens up the grid to cyber-attacks. The economic impact of a total or even partial failure of the power grid is astronomical and makes a very appealing target to those who wish to cause

To ensure that the Western Interconnection power grid computer network is properly secured, there needs to be strong defense-in-depth strategies in place. Although they may be strong defense-in-depth strategies, vulnerabilities may be present and used as an advantage point for hackers to gain access to the network. Defense-in-depth strategies will help create risk management to assess certain risks that may be proven as detrimental to a network.

Privacy threats are currently the biggest threat to National Security today. The threats are not only concerning to the government, however. An alarming 92% of Americans are concerned that the power grid may be vulnerable to a cyber-attack (Denholm). Although this is a more recent development to the cyber threats we have experienced, this is not the first time that privacy threats have stepped into the limelight as people are forced to watch their every online move.

Cyber-attacks are common in the defense industry, but in January 2010, a sophisticated, advanced persistent threat hacked into the commercial sector forever changing the face of cyber security. Dubbed “Operation Aurora” by McAfee, the attack targeted specific high profile corporations to obtain valuable intellectual property. Google, Yahoo, Juniper Networks and Adobe Systems were also among the victims of this highly coordinated cyber heist. By manipulating computer codes the attackers were able to exploit the Microsoft Internet Explorer vulnerabilities to gain access and obtain valuable sensitive information from over thirty high profile companies. Operation Aurora proves that the world is entering into a high-risk era where

Every business and organization can experience a serious incident which can prevent it from continuing normal operations. This can happen any day at any time. The potential causes are many and varied: flood, explosion, computer malfunction, accident, grievous act... the list is endless.

The NRC has issued numerous Orders to operating power reactor licensees, requiring them to increase security measures and capabilities in order to protect their systems and infrastructures from insider terrorist attack, airborne and land-based assaults. In the last decades, there have been a rise in the number of security breaches as criminal organizations and state-sponsored hackers continue to use cyberspace to inflict destruction and disorder in nuclear facilities. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, the nuclear sector began addressing cybersecurity regulations. The emergence of sophisticated cyber threats was also a catalyst for the improvement of cybersecurity and the enactment of stringent security regulations. The NRC, Nuclear Regulation Commission, and the IAEA, International Atomic Energy Agency, have been taking the

Cyber-physical systems which are embedded in the environment are used to monitor, understand the behaviors and control, the physical world. The emerging CPS application, the proliferation of smart grids has been observed in our daily life. The adversary can inject false measurement reports to disrupt the smart grid operation through the compromised meters and sensors. Those attacks are denoted as false data

In the modern life style there are numerous organisations are spending enterprise content management (ECM) systems, in directive to achieve multifarious data related to the association. This material wants to be sheltered from illegal workers. The main determination of this study reports is to examine nearly to the security tasks confronted by petty and large scale business. The primary part of this study contains of finding present and related on ECM security. At that moment, it 's essential to thru on but the automated conflict project and content management systems are entirely different from data structures. As associate degree electronic warfare system might handle each structured and unstructured information, there are a great diverge of possible security problems electronic warfare systems give business connected edges like availability, accurate document organisation, advanced growth organization. On the opposite hand, electronic warfare systems are susceptible to security fears beside those groups and their papers. The assignment review for additionally shields of the numerous categories of security attacks and a few of the defensive actions.

Safety of information is the most valuable asset in any organization particular those who provide financial service to others. Threats can come from a variety of sources such as human threats, natural disasters and technical threats. By identifying the potential threats to the network, security measure can be taken to combat these threats, eliminate them or reduce the likelihood and impact if they should occur.

A lot of opinions and meanings has been given to the word “Cyberterrorism”. Some of these meanings and definitions varies. In this light, Gordon and Ford (2003) are concerned that when 10 people define cyberterrorism and nine of the given answers are different, and these 10 people represent different government agencies tasked with safeguarding national assets and infrastructure, then it becomes a critical issue.