SCADA cyber security

Posted by alvina on August 30th, 2019

SCADA cybersecurity involves protection of supervisory control and data acquisition networks. Industrial operations commonly make use of this framework of control systems, referred to as SCADA ICS (industrial control systems). Automated control and remote management of commodities such as natural gas, electricity, water, and transportation are managed by humans through such networks. Besides this, they play a vital role in the efficiency and quality enhancement of other real-world processes such as brewing beer, snowmaking in ski resorts, etc.

Just like the other networks, these networks are also prone to cyber-attacks and has the potential to wreck the critical infrastructure of the country. The SCADA systems are quite expensive and can be as high as millions of dollars. Therefore SCADA security is essential and is ensured through the use of SCADA monitoring software. It not only safeguards the infrastructure but also saves millions of people from any kind of disruption due to an internal to fault or external attack.

The security threats that are posed to the smaller companies, as well as federal government working with the SCADA system have a lasting impact on the economy and community. These threats can be in the form of hackers, malware, terrorist attack, company's own employing which are referred to as internal threats.

The feasibility of the remote command and control has been possible since the past decades owing to the introduction of network technology and industrial control system or ICS. These are actually the command and support processes of industries, the largest subgroup being SCADA. There has been a transformation of the ICS to open architectures and standard technologies from the isolated and proprietary systems. Today these are associated with the corporate networks and the internet.

SCADA monitoring software is used for examining and controlling various equipment in different industrial processes such as manufacturing, production, development, etc. The SCADA system doesn't need a lot of human intervention as it takes the meters' reading and examines the sensors' status consistently. Multi-tasking and real-time database servers are used here which are responsible for gathering and handling of data. The software provides trending, diagnostic data and manages various information relayed to maintenance, logistics, schematics for a sensor, etc. The person who is in charge of the operations can visualize a schematic representation of the control processes occurring in the plant such as calculations, logging and archiving, polling controllers on a parameter set, etc.

Using a SCADA system is highly beneficial as it enhances the equipment life through the knowledge of how the system performs, reduces the cost of labor for troubleshooting purpose, and generates a report automatically and enhances compliance with the regulatory agencies. Organizations involved in automation make use of SCADA for real-time data display accessibility, alarming, trending and reporting. With it, you are flexible to select the systems depending on the performance instead of just compatibility with the base that has been installed.