{"id":293,"date":"2024-11-20T17:43:50","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T17:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/haileybrisson\/?p=293"},"modified":"2024-11-20T17:43:50","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T17:43:50","slug":"write-up-critical-infrastructure-vulnerabilities-and-scada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/haileybrisson\/2024\/11\/20\/write-up-critical-infrastructure-vulnerabilities-and-scada\/","title":{"rendered":"Write Up: Critical Infrastructure Vulnerabilities and SCADA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCADA systems play an important role in Critical Infrastructure (CI) Systems. SCADA helps implement applications and risk management in Critical Infrastructure Systems. Critical Infrastructure Systems cannot work without SCADA because it helps monitor and control processes in real-time.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is SCADA and Critical Infrastructure Systems
<\/strong>SCADA, short for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, is used within critical infrastructure systems and is crucial in controlling, monitoring, and optimizing many complex infrastructure, facility-based, and industrial processes (SCADA systems). Robles et al. (2008) states, \u201cCritical Infrastructure (CI) is used by governments as a term to describe infrastructures, systems and assets that are essential for the society and economy.\u201d SCADA systems are essential for increasing overall operating reliability, decreasing interruptions, and increasing efficiency in critical infrastructure systems. SCADA helps many critical infrastructure processes such as wind farms, wastewater treatment, space stations, airports, power generation and so much more.
Vulnerabilities Associated With Critical Infrastructure Systems
<\/strong>With any type of online system comes vulnerabilities and we see many of those in critical infrastructure systems. Robles et al. (2008) describes a vulnerability as, \u201ccharacteristics of an installation, system, asset, application, or its dependencies that could cause it to suffer a degradation or loss (incapacity to perform its designated function) as a result of having been subjected to a certain level of threat or hazard.\u201d Critical infrastructure systems are connected to a control system, SCADA, which is connected to a network, making it vulnerable. Some examples of vulnerability in critical infrastructure include cyber threats, natural disasters, outdated technology, human error, poor detection and security measures, etc.
SCADA Applications and Risk Management
<\/strong>SCADA has many applications to protect critical infrastructure systems from vulnerabilities. One example is that, in bigger SCADA systems, master stations sometimes include distributed software applications, multiple servers, and disaster recovery sites which help with risk prevention for critical infrastructure systems (SCADA systems). Some SCADA applications help by providing real-time monitoring and detection systems that can be used to prevent a vulnerability from happening. The SCADA systems article mentioned, \u201cSecurity is extremely important because the destruction of the systems would have very bad consequences.\u201d SCADA helps to make sure that there are security measures in place in critical infrastructure systems and that is one of the most crucial and important aspects of what SCADA does. Some other applications that are being put in place are the use of industrial VPN and firewall solutions.
Conclusion<\/strong>
SCADA plays a crucial role in critical infrastructure processes all around the world such as in ships, manufacturing, gas pipelines, water treatment and so much more. Many vulnerabilities come along with critical infrastructure systems like natural disasters, cyber threats, human error, etc. However, there are also many SCADA applications available that can help mitigate those risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References
<\/strong>Robles, R. J., Choi, M., Cho, E., Kim, S., Park, G., & Lee, J.-H. (2008). Common threats and vulnerabilities of critical infrastructures. https:\/\/citeseerx.ist.psu.edu\/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=7098a29a404f8561c7f3c66801b6e1f36f88b7b7
SCADA systems. SCADA Systems. (n.d.). https:\/\/www.scadasystems.net\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCADA systems play an important role in Critical Infrastructure (CI) Systems. SCADA helps implement applications and risk management in Critical Infrastructure Systems. Critical Infrastructure Systems cannot work without SCADA because it helps monitor and control processes in real-time. What Is SCADA and Critical Infrastructure SystemsSCADA, short for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, is used within… <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":27234,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/haileybrisson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/haileybrisson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/haileybrisson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/haileybrisson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/haileybrisson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/haileybrisson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":294,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/haileybrisson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions\/294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/haileybrisson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/haileybrisson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/haileybrisson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}