Mason Phillips
CYSE 200T
Professor Duvall
November 9, 2025

Vulnerabilities of Critical infrastructure Systems

BLUF: The digitization of critical infrastructure including agriculture, water systems, and
waste management, has opened vulnerabilities for cyber-attacks; however, these attacks
can be mitigated through SCADA applications.

Overview

The digitization of critical infrastructure such as agriculture, water systems, and waste
management has brought upon the possibility of these systems suffering cyber attacks that
can cripple not just a singular part of it but the entire system itself.

How SCADA helps to mitigate risks

SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) helps to mitigate risks of attack and
reduce risk of compromission of infrastructure through recognizing specific risks to these
systems, implementing technical and operational controls, and ensuring resilience and
recovery so that in the case of an attack the systems can be quickly recovered.

Issues with SCADA

The security of SCADA systems are constantly being questioned as they are a target for
attack. A major possible threat to the SCADA systems are unauthorized access to software,
or any other issues that could affect the host machine.

Conclusion

Conclusion: SCADA systems are necessary for the security and risk mitigation of cyber-
attacks in critical infrastructure regardless of whether it is a target for attack itself.

Sources

Amos, Z. (n.d.). 9 SCADA system vulnerabilities and how to secure them. 9 SCADA System
Vulnerabilities and How to Secure Them. https://gca.isa.org/blog/9-scada-system-vulnerabilities-and-how-to-secure-them

Riggs, H., Tufail, S., Parvez, I., Tariq, M., Khan, M. A., Amir, A., Vuda, K. V., & Sarwat, A. I.
(2023a, April 17). Impact, vulnerabilities, and mitigation strategies for Cyber-Secure
Critical Infrastructure. Sensors (Basel, Switzerland). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10145335/#sec4-sensors-23-04060