Vulnerability

In the twenty-first century, technology has become deeply interlaced with our society and infrastructure. There are many important technological systems that help run our modernized world and are used in electricity plants, traffic light systems, and even nuclear power plants. Since the failure of these systems has such a high risk associated with them they are a potential target to cyberterrorism or cyberwarfare attacks. If one major infrastructure system were to fail it could result in a devastating chain of events and massive amounts of damage.

SCADA Systems

SCADA is a system used commonly for alarms within critical infrastructure systems. SCADA refers to industrial control systems, or ICS. This controls critical infrastructure processes in order to reduce the risk of failure of an important system. There are many subsystems used in an ICS in order to keep everything in check. One subsystem is the HMI, or the human interface which is necessary for someone to be able to visually see the state of a system and all of the data collected by the system. They also use this interface to control the system and override certain tasks if necessary. By having a human component to the process it allows for a human’s common sense to fit into a system mostly run by technology. Another highly important system are RTUs and PLCs. RTU refers to remote terminal units which connect to the sensors of the process, which helps to convert the sensor signals to the digital data and send the data to supervisory stream which is the HMI. The PLC stands for Programmable Logic Controller which are used as field devices. A Majority of the system’s controls are automatically performed by the remote terminal units or by the programmable logic controllers. Having the process done by computers allows for flexible, consistent and precise day to day operations of the system. A supervisory station is the software and servers needed for communication with the field equipment and transferring it to the HMI. For some SCADA systems, it is necessary for hardware to be ruggedized, to withstand temperature, voltage and vibration extremes, and reliability is increased, in many critical installations, by including communications channels and redundant hardware. If a part is failing it can be identified and the functionality taken over automatically through backup hardware. This allows parts to be replaced without any interruption of the process and for the system to be physically secure. The harmony of the RTU, PLC, and HMI is what makes the core of the security of a critical system from the potential attacks towards a country’s important infrastructure systems.

“Cyber Attacks on Critical Infrastructure.” AGCS Global, https://www.agcs.allianz.com/news-and-insights/expert-risk-articles/cyber-attacks-on-critical-infrastructure.html. “SCADA Systems.” SCADA Systems, http://www.scadasystems.net/.