Vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure

                  Critical infrastructures must be always protected because they are extremely essential to the economy.

There are many critical infrastructures that are key to our day to day lives, but the main one that will be mentioned, is the transportation services. This service ensures that products, customers, and other assets are sent from one location to the next either by Air, Water or land.

The vulnerabilities that come with this service are mainly by cyber threats or physical threats. This service is also constantly moving which makes it much harder to ensure security, therefore human error is also a major vulnerability for this service. Furthermore, it is mandatory that employees and other personnel follow the rules and regulations accordingly to mitigate any risk that may happen.

Transportation such as trains that carry loads of products are at a high risk, especially if it something of interest. For example, if a hacker was able to breach into a system where they were transporting medical supplies for a hospital. They would be able to find the location of the products, where it is going, and which transportation company will be carrying such items. In addition, this causes a major risk to their physical security because the criminals will have the complete schedule of the transport and can execute their plan accordingly to get the product.

         How Scada mitigates these risks

Scada systems are used to supervise and acquire data. These systems are continually running and gives the users the current status of the systems in which they are operating and also gives them early detections of issues that may occur in the future.

Also, scada manages the systems for the company which stops one of the major vulnerabilities for the infrastructure which is human errors. Telecom states, “Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems are very important for the automation of processes. They allow you to be aware of potential network issues and to make informed decisions to respond accordingly every time. Relying on remote monitoring devices for management and control of equipment virtually eliminates human error.” (Telecom, 2022). Lastly, the scada systems can control and manage train schedules to ensure that operations move smoothly and in addition to this they can predict future maintenances and plan such things accordingly.

In conclusion, the scada systems have the ability to secure vulnerable infrastructures by implementing control systems and monitors that can regulate the transportation systems without the risk of human errors. This system also ensures that these infrastructures are a few steps ahead to mitigate cyber-attacks and potential issues while being protected by firewalls and encryptions to further protect their data.

References

CISA. (2024). Transportation systems | CISA. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA. https://www.cisa.gov/topics/critical-infrastructure-security-and-resilience/resilience-services/infrastructure-dependency-primer/learn/transportation

Telecom. (2022). Where is SCADA used? What industries use SCADA? Remote Monitoring & Control Systems Company | DPS Telecom. https://www.dpstele.com/scada/where-is-used.php