The SCADA system is a vital tool today as its used to control infrastructures like water treatments,
facility-based processes, wind farms, etc. But, while this may be good, it also comes with vulnerabilities
and risks associated with it. In this essay, I will be explaining what the SCADA system is and why it\u2019s
important. I\u2019ll also be discussing the risks associated with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The SCADA system is a vital tool today as its used to control infrastructures like water treatments,facility-based processes, wind farms, etc. But, while this may be good, it also comes with vulnerabilitiesand risks associated with it. In this essay, I… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/kevonlmerritte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/kevonlmerritte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/kevonlmerritte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/kevonlmerritte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/kevonlmerritte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/kevonlmerritte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/kevonlmerritte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions\/286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/kevonlmerritte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/kevonlmerritte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/kevonlmerritte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
What is the SCADA system
<\/strong>The SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) is used to control infrastructure processes like
gas pipelines, wind farms, airports, space stations, etc. The SCADA system Is always collecting data from
sensors and other devices throughout the infrastructure to make sure parameters are steady and
maintained. The system mainly focuses on things like temperature, pressure, loss of flow, voltage, or
vibration extremes. With this, workers and operators are able to monitor the performance and quality of
equipment. SCADA also has the ability automatically take over situations that could be dangerous for
workers. The SCADA system is ruggedized and reliable with the ability to withstand catastrophic failures
of hardware and able to replace issues with backup hardware without any interruption of the process.
When it comes to attacks, SCADA can immediately set off alarms and shutdown to prevent the incident
to worsen with the ability to notify specialist in the field to properly eradicate the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Risks of the SCADA system
<\/strong>As crucial as the SCADA system may be for the defense and security of systems, it also comes with many risks and hazards that could be troublesome if not handled correctly. The SCADA system protects many
things like distribution of water, gas transportation, oil pipelines, etc. If something wrong was to occur,
the damage could bad both financially and environmentally if security fails. When discussing threats, one
that sticks out is cyber-attacks. Chee-Wooi Ten, Chen-Ching Liu, & Manimaran, G. (2008) mentions that
with these cyber-attacks, comes possible consequences. Loss of load, loss of information, economic loss,
and equipment damage. The two types of attacks that could cause those consequences are directed attacks and intelligent attacks. Direct attacks are short terms effects that are determined by behaviors. For
example, shutting down the SCADA system using a DOS attack could disable the online monitoring and
control system. For intelligent attacks, these are well-planned attacks that require in-depth power system
knowledge. For example, attackers may alter the lines of a control center which could potentially mislead
dispatchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conclusion
<\/strong>In conclusion, SCADA systems are very crucial today as it controls many important infrastructures like
traffic lights, gas transportation, it can pretty much function automatically without the use of humans
most of time. As good as this may seem, the SCADA system could cause severe damage if not handled
properly. The system isn\u2019t as secure when it comes to cyber attacks as its able to send or and receive
information, attackers could potentially intercept this data and corrupt it beyond repair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
References<\/strong>
Chee-Wooi Ten, Chen-Ching Liu, & Manimaran, G. (2008). Vulnerability Assessment of Cybersecurity
for SCADA Systems. IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 23(4), 1836\u20131846.
https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/TPWRS.2008.2002298<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"