What Is SCADA?
SCADA stands for “Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition”. It is a system that collects data in various ways at factories, plants, etc. SCADA is really a term that is used to portray management solutions and control. SCADA is currently being used in numerous industries. For example, Water Management Systems, Electric Power, Traffic Signals, Mass Transit Systems, Environmental Control Systems, and Manufacturing Systems. SCADA is made up of many parts that are key in its ability to be functional. These parts are but not limited to, an input and output, networks, controllers, software, and communication equipment.
What Is Critical Infrastructure And What Are Its Vulnerabilities
Critical Infrastructure is the networks, systems, and assets that are very necessary to ensure a nation’s security and economy. It is urgent that the infrastructures be continuously operating and do so smoothly without any threats or mishaps. There are 16 sectors but to name a few, Chemical, Communications, Energy, and Financial Services, alongside 12 others. When we talk about the vulnerabilities and/or threats to Critical Infrastructure, there are three major classes of threats. The classes are Natural, Human-Caused, and Accidental or Technical. Natural threats consist of things like earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and fires. Human-Caused would be things terrorism, tampering, and theft. Accidental or Technical would consist of power-grid failures, system failures, and hazardous material failures. These are all types of threats but the biggest vulnerability is communications. This was made clear during 9/11, after 9/11 many customers and businesses including the New York Stock Exchange were out of service for days. Without the communication systems, we were at risk of another attack which could’ve been anything from cyber attacks to another terrorism act.
How Does SCADA Mitigate These Risk
SCADA mitigates these risks by helping control and supervise multiple viewpoints in the system. They do this by developing specialized industrial VPN and firewall solutions for SCADA networks that are based on TCP/IP. With SCADA there are two ends to it, the controlled side by an authorized user and the side with the network and systems working for itself. When one fails or is down then the other is there for backup, this is good in case an attack does happen. It also helps with obtaining information and creating accurate information related to the process and being able to increase traceability with errors and attacks. When things like this are traceable, we can take what we know and learn from it and then make changes to the systems so that it does not happen again.
Conclusion
In conclusion, SCADA helps reduce the risks to critical infrastructure by being able to collect data and send it where it is needed and then when we have the data, we adjust and fix whatever weak points there may be. SCADA is used all over the world in many industries and companies and is remaining as one of the best systems to have. New types of cyber and other threats are being created everyday so SCADA has been constantly adapting to what’s new in order to help protect and reduce risk.
References
Advantages offered by our SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nutecbickley.com/blog/advantages-offered-by-our-scada-supervisory-control-and-data-acquisition-system#:~:text=The benefits of SCADA in our industrial kilns,regime and decreasing downtime. … More items…
Muthukrishnan, V. (2020, October 05). SCADA System: What is it? (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition). Retrieved from https://www.electrical4u.com/scada-system/#:~:text=SCADA Basics 1 Objectives of SCADA. The SCADA,Unit (RTU) is connected with sensors and actuators.