What Is SCADA?
Supervisory control and data acquisition is a system that helps industrial organizations (Energy, Food and Beverage, Manufacturing, Oil and Gas, Power, Recycling, Transportation, Water, and Wastewater) manage data gathering in real-time, interact with sensors, valves, and human-machine interface (HMI). “SCADA systems are crucial for industrial organizations since they help to maintain efficiency, process data for smarter decisions, and communicate system issues to help mitigate downtime” (What is SCADA?). SCADA system originated from the early 1950s. The reasoning is because Supervisory control in the industrial markets started to become popular.

Origin

In the 1960s telemarketing was created, allowing different systems to communicate with each other. In the 1970s the term “SCADA” was coined. As technology advanced so did the SCADA systems. In the ’90s and ‘00s, SCADA Systems developed Local Area Networking (also known as LAN) and human-machine interface. The reason you want to use a SCADA system is to maintain efficiency, communicate system issues, and distribute data. In recent years, SCADA systems have been coming under scrutiny for being vulnerable to cyberattacks.
Security Problems and Solutions

The 1st vulnerability pointed out that unauthorized access to the system. Another vulnerability was is targeting the human-machine interface. A human-machine interface displays data from sensors and relays it to the SCADA system. The way the human-machine interface is used is a prime target to gain access to crucial information. The last vulnerability is packet access to the systems. Since there is no security when sending packets any person can send packets to a SCADA system taking control of it. Users of SCADA systems are trying to fight back from these vulnerability threats. VPNs are used to eliminate the packet problem. The other common protections are: keeping your systems up to date with patches, have proper authorization of user accounts, and maintain strict policies for what devices can be allowed to connect to the SCADA networks.