Once the pain of a risk assessment is over, a few managers look at each other and decide on what changes they would like to make. Usually an IT expert comes in to install new network security hardware or someone is tasked with revising documentation; but rarely does anyone tinker with assigning responsibility. Nobody wants […]
Category: General Topic
How A Process Works
Understanding Industrial Process Control Buried among the design blue prints and volumes of handbooks, there are two documents of great significance to anyone who cares about ICS security. The names may be slightly different than what I’m calling them here, but the concept is the same. First is the Process Description. It is an overview […]
Beyond Risk Assessment
Understanding Industrial Security Before computer security was a thing, there was Industrial Security. It was primarily physical: Guards, Gates, Guns. The guards would periodically patrol the fence to ensure that there were no holes or evidence of tampering. They had guns to ward off direct attacks and to enforce policy within the plant. They would […]
Budget of ICS Security: Where is the ROI?
How Much to Budget? Many are flummoxed when working on budgets such as ICS Security. Security contains many aspects that are actually routine activities that we should be doing anyway, that actually do have an ROI. If a few minor improvements are made, it can be integrated in to security. Inventory For example, go to […]
Risk Assessments Are Not
The problem with discussing risk on a SCADA/ICS network, especially the way that most security guidelines describe it, is that it isn’t a linear function. In other words, the risk of A happening, B happening, and C happening is not A times B times C. That might be true with safety, but it is definitely […]
In addressing cyber threats to critical infrastructure, it is helpful to think of the lesson of the “3 Little Pigs”
On June 7th the European People’s Party organized a public hearing on Cybercrime and Cybersecurity at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium (1) . It was a great honor to be invited as a speaker on Cybersecurity and Critical Energy Infrastructure for the second panel discussion covering the theme of “Cybersecurity: improving European industry”. I […]
Thoughts on the wake-up-call (another one) called “WannaCry”
“But as soon as we find out that it’s state-sponsored, or there may be state actors involved, we back away from that.” – Interpol digital crime centre director Sanjay Virmani Seems that the WannaCry incident should appear on anyone’s short list of notable cyber incidents of 2017 (so far). Some reports in the press have […]
OT Security Detects a Problem: Now What?
Let’s fast forward in to the near future. The network configuration is well documented. The hashes of all code are known and recorded. Firewalls have been installed in appropriate places. The network traffic rates and patterns are known and monitored. Physical LAN port statuses are monitored. In other words the control systems integrity is monitored […]
Succession Planning
After 31 years at the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) I’m eligible to retire. I will be starting a new position at Jacobs Engineering next month. My kids are looking at colleges and frankly, I need the money. I would happily stay with WSSC if I could afford to, but I can’t. In case you […]
Fun with Fiber Optics
I was swapping out a router today. Our old ones have served us long and well, but the vendor is no longer supporting them as they used to. We also had some creatures that I wanted to get rid of. On the wall in the telecommunications shelter there were three cheap 100Base-FX to 100BaseT converters, […]