Aliyah Morales  

Old Dominion University 

CYSE 200T Fall 2023 

Bluf  

SCADA is an acronym that stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. It is a system used to control different industrial processes remotely. Examples of infrastructure that uses SCADA are water treatment plants, transportation and traffic controls. This article details the role SCADA plays in the ability to control industrial and infrastructure remotely.  Reading this article helped me see the potential security problems of SCADA while also highlighting the positive impact it has had.  

History and components of Scada Systems 

Scada Systems are used widely in many different industries, and they have been around, but the evolving technology has created SCADA to be impactful. In the early 1950’s and the 1960’s there were analog systems that regulated and controlled large-scale industrial processes (History of SCADA.). It was not until later in the 1970’s with the invention of microprocessor by Marcian Ted Hoff, that SCADA systems were created to be more powerful. SCADA systems over time have evolved from analog systems to cloud computing and the newest addition of artificial intelligence. The main component of a SCADA System is necessary to keep the system collecting important data to be used to help make decisions.  The major components of a SCADA system are HMI software, Remote Terminal Units, Sensors and actuators, SCADA field controllers, SCADA supervisory computers, and Communication infrastructure (Loshin).  

Notable SCADA System Breaches  

There have been several breaches on SCADA systems, in 2021 there were three water plants that used SCADA systems that ransomware attacks. One of the water plants was in Oldsmar, Florida where an employee noticed that his mouse cursor was moving erratically. Later, the mouse was repeating its previous steps and the employee noticed that the “water supply’s levels of sodium hydroxide, also known as lye or caustic soda, moving the setting from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million” (Greenberg). At that level, the water would damage any human tissue it encounters. Fortunately, the employee responded swiftly and was able to reset the controls. The SCADA system was compromised through a remote access software TeamViewer.  

Conclusion   

SCADA Systems have positively impacted the industrial landscape, through empowering remote control and data acquisition in various critical infrastructures. While acknowledging its positive influence on efficiency and control, it is crucial to recognize the vulnerability of SCADA systems to security breaches, as evidenced by the recent ransomware attacks on water plants in 2021. The ongoing advancements in technology, from the integration of cloud computing to the implementation of artificial intelligence, signify both the progress and the vulnerabilities of SCADA systems.  

References  

Greenberg, A. (2021, February 8). A hacker tried to poison a Florida City’s water supply. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/oldsmar-florida-water-utility-hack/ 

History of SCADA. SCADA Info. (2023, March 3). https://www.scadainfo.com/history-of-scada/#:~:text=SCADA%2C%20which%20stands%20for%20Supervisory,distinct%20technology%20until%20the%201970s 

 Loshin, P. (2021, December 16). What is SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition)?. WhatIs.com. https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/SCADA-supervisory-control-and-data-acquisition 

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