Reading the recently published Industrial Control Systems Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) Advanced Analytical Laboratory (AAL) White Paper on Malware Trends left me somewhat unimpressed and disappointed. Whenever I read a document about cybersecurity, especially one written by an institution dealing with the security of industrial control systems, I am keen to see how the authors […]
Category: Critical Infrastructure
SCADA Radio follies
I maintain several SCADA masters with licensed MAS radios. The older radios had served us long and well. However, we’re starting to see failures on the back side of the classic bathtub curve. Two days ago, we installed a new radio at one of our smaller master sites. This was our first swap-out of a […]
If control systems move back to analogue can we still keep our smart phones?
I have been following the discussion about the return to analogue. Both this and the Industry 4.0 movement are new to me and have put them on my “study this more” list. Recently a colleague sent me a paper, “The Case for Simplicity in Energy Infrastructure” (1) , which has captured my imagination. It very […]
Security Wrongs and Rights
I’m noticing a disturbing trend of late: Some end-users are actively trying to impose security from outside staff upon operations. In fact, some vendors are suggesting that this is a good thing to do. Sadly, imposing security on others is a doomed effort. They’re going to fail badly because they’re not thinking ahead of the […]
Meditations on Icelandic tomatoes and the challenge of raising cybersecurity awareness
Raising the awareness for a cybersecurity practitioner about the vulnerabilities of IT and Industrial Control Systems to today’s threats emanating from cyberspace can sometimes resemble the hopeless task of Sisyphus(1). The practitioner has the knowledge but it is not an easy thing to convey the concerns to higher management that may not be as technically […]
Seeking to Develop Exercises That Test Response Capabilities to Any Threat & Add Value
Conducting an exercise can be a very useful tool for testing policies, procedures and actions of institutions for dealing with a perceived threat scenario. It offers the advantage of providing an idea of what would really happen if the worst was to happen without doing any real damage. It can provide answers to questions without […]
Smart Technology That Isn’t So…”Smart”
During the week of July 17th, I attended and spoke at the “Business Opportunities Gateway Forum – Electrical Power and Energy” which was held in Vilnius and organized by the Society of Electrical and Electronic Engineers in Israel. I looked forward to this event for the opportunity to spend some time with engineers and talk […]
Complexity or Not?
At Digital Bond’s website, Mike Toecker makes a case for complex control systems in that complexity often brings efficiency and performance with it. While efficiency and performance are certainly noble goals, they’re not the only ones. If you’re in Critical Infrastructure, there is another goal that gets a higher priority than either of these two […]
To Analog…or Not to Analog…THAT is the Question…
NOTE: At the end of this article is a URL link for a voluntary survey. Recently, there was news of a new Senate bill to develop a pilot program for the Energy Sector. Dubbed the “Securing Energy Infrastructure Act of 2016” (S. 3018), this bill is to provide for the establishment of a pilot program […]
Why ISA-99/IEC 62443 is in Trouble
Before I reveal this e-mail I sent to the ISA-99 list, one should understand the discussion leading up to my rant. The ISA-99 list had been trying to frame its discussion in terms of existing security standards. In my opinion, they’re making an enormous mistake. Industrial control system security should not be pigeonholed in to […]