Cassis, Matthew 

CYSE 200T 

4-23-26 

SCADA Systems and Critical Infrastructure. 

BLUF: If I was a CSO in charge of Critical Infrastructure of any kind, I would make sure that SCADA systems were integrated and maintained to the highest degree possible within all stages and gears of the infrastructure. SCADA systems catch any irregularities that man simply cannot and provides that fastest way to rectify such problems. It can provide data and analytics on any system that it is installed in, making maintenance and dialysis far simpler and more efficient than it would be for regular workers to. It is easily controllable from any location and records and files all data/events into a log file. 

Critical Infrastructure Vulnerabilities: Vulnerabilities within Critical Infrastructure range from Cyber Attacks/threats(ransomware, malware, insider threats etc.) Aging technology and Supply Chain vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities can manifest in many different ways across the board from valve system on a water pump being too loose and destroying other systems, disgruntled employee logging in after hours and shutting off upkeep systems to aging technology being hacked and used as a gateway into more important systems that can be used to blackout an entire plant. Without the right systems in place to keep these systems up to date and secure, critical infrastructures such as energy, water, power, nuclear, electric, transportation and financial can all be targeted in their own ways with their own cataclysmic consequences.  

Effects of Critical Infrastructure Vulnerabilities: The effects of critical infrastructure vulnerabilities can be, as stated before, cataclysmic. Critical Infrastructure is the infrastructures that modern civilization depends upon to survive. Targeting any one of these infrastructures can topple or maim any city, town or even state. For instance, targeting healthcare can disrupt patients’ visits, misdiagnose fatal diseases or shut down hospitals completely forcing citizens to flood the nearest hospital in order to receive treatment. Targeting water can lead to hazardous pipe water which can cause a multitude of diseases, infections, injuries or even death along with extreme financial costs. Targeting electricity can shut all three of these and more which can lead to a multitude of events and unfortunate outcomes due to electricity being one of the biggest crutches of modern civilization. 

Effects of SCADA systems: As stated before, SCADA systems are extremely useful and reliable within Critical Infrastructure. One of their key uses can be against Cyber-attacks like the aforementioned examples in the heading before. SCADA systems can be detected and logged from anywhere, making overall maintenance, security and upkeep of Critical Infrastructure extremely easy and effective. As technology evolves and attacks get more intricate, complex and powerful, systems like SCADA must adapt to the growing need. For instance, a water pump plant does not need to be destroyed to affect the civilization that relies on it, all an attacker needs to do is tweak the water pressure a little too high and wait for the pump to explode which can lead to other pumps exploding and the entire plant being shut down. With SCADA systems installed, this tweak in water pressure would simply appear as an alert to the CSO or whomever is in charge and the catastrophe/attack can be completley avoided and rectified with no damage at all. Another use of SCADA can be against insider threats, a former employee that still has access to the company who logs on after hours can easily be weeded out and handled before any real damage can be done due to SCADA being able to detect those constant occurrences. Unlike an employee who must recheck the system logs every few days to detect this occurrence.  

Conclusion: In conclusion, SCADA systems are extremely important and useful to all Critical Infrastructure systems. With the rapid pace of advancement of technology in the world, Cyber Attacks are also rapidly advancing with new methods and devices along with more malicious intent. SCADA systems is one of the solutions to this problem and others like it.  

References: SCADA systems article, Inductive Automation, “What is SCADA? Supervisory Control and Automation.”