BLUF:
Many industrial systems are susceptible to attacks but SCADA systems help mitigate attacks
such as human overrides, data infiltration, and preventing downtime for these systems. This
shows how crucial SCADA systems are in the world of cybersecurity.
An industrial system can be attacked by cybercriminals, causing many issues for the
organization in use of this system. SCADA systems prevent unauthorized users from entering
these networks, helping them run smoothly without disturbances. According to
, “SCADA protocols have been designed to be extremely compactSCADA Systems.docx
and to send information to the master station only when the RTU is polled by the master
station.” This shows that it makes it extremely difficult to attack infrastructures that are secured
by a SCADA system.
Data infiltration is a big threat that can corrupt the information before it is sent to the
correct station. According to
https://www.legitsecurity.com/aspm-knowledge-base/scada-systems-security, “The information
that sensors collect feeds into analytic platforms that evaluate system health and efficiency.”
Meaning that if the data that is collected by the SCADA system is tampered with and sent to the
master station then it could be critical to the operation, and could cause an outage and reduce
its health.
Downtimes and outages for industrial services can cause chaos throughout many parts
of the world, depending on the type of system that is down. Preventing outages is a big part of
the role of SCADA systems, as it provides system security against different attacks. This in all
ensures stability for the system and a secure network for it to run on.
Conclusion:
While SCADA systems may not be perfect, they offer great security against cybercriminals, data
corruption, and outages. Without them, many industrial systems would be subject to mass
cybercrime.