With the concerns being voiced about the need for critical infrastructure cyber security in electric, water (Oldsmar), and energy (Colonial Pipelines), I have seen little discussion about the food sector which has no cyber security requirements for the control systems used in the food manufacturing process (Food Safety Management Act). Consequently, March 14, 2021 I […]
Category: Unfettered
The Colonial Pipeline cyberattack – Did IT/OT convergence contribute to the attack
After having done the analysis of the Bellingham, WA Olympic Pipeline rupture that killed 3 people for NIST, I expected the Colonial Pipeline hack to be an OT incident affecting the SCADA system and potentially causing pipe leaks or pipe ruptures. However, that does not appear to be the issue in this case. Darkside’s malware […]
Control system cyber incidents are much more plentiful than people realize
Control systems are systems of systems. Consequently, when one device or system is compromised, it can impact many others, potentially numbered in the tens to thousands. If I were to have counted all of the individual cases, my database would have almost 12 million control system cyber incidents. The insurance industry and credit rating agencies […]
Are your buildings and cloud cyber secure?
Many data centers that support the cloud as well as commercial buildings have not adequately addressed control system cyber security. The lack of adequately addressing building control system cyber security was demonstrated to have caused very significant financial and potentially safety impacts. When you consider these control system cyber threats can affect multiple buildings, the […]
A Reality Check of the DOE 100-Day Plan to Address Cybersecurity Risks to the US Electric System
I am happy to see ICS cyber security specifically being addressed by the US Secretary of Energy. It is “unobtainium” to secure the electric system, or any other industry which uses the same equipment, within 100 days even though there can be a good start. Network cyber threat prevention and situational awareness can be employed […]
Enough About Data Breaches. Let’s Talk About OT Security – TAG Cyber
Tag Cyber moderated a roundtable discussion with Mark Weatherford and me on control system cybersecurity. The discussion was why operational technology (OT) is woefully neglected—and what can be done to change that. This discussion becomes even more timely with the recent DOE 100-Day Plan to Address Cybersecurity Risks to the US Electric System. The roundtable […]
Was the Ever Given hacked in the Suez Canal?
This blog is speculative as there is little public information about what caused the Ever Given to run aground in the Suez Canal. I find it curious that a newer ship could have had the technical problems (which could have been caused by a cyberattack) at just the time the ship could entirely block the […]
Data center cybersecurity – don’t overlook the cyber vulnerable building control systems
According to many people, data is the new oil. Industries such as insurance, finance, retail, etc. depend on massive amounts of data from multiple data centers. However, what happens if you can’t get to your data because the data center infrastructure or servers have been damaged and are unusable? Data is merely a series of […]
The US food supply is neither cybersecure nor safe from control system cyber threats
The US FDA is supposed to assure the US food supply is safe from adulteration. However, the FDA Food Safety Management Act (FSMA) requirements ignore cyber threats. There have been more than 20 control system cyber incidents in food and beverage facilities including some where people were harmed and others that shut down facilities. Similar […]
Observations from 2021 SANS ICS Cyber Security Conference
The 2021 SANS ICS Cyber Security Conference was held March 4-5, 2021 with almost 9,000 registrants globally. The Conference thoroughly addressed OT networking issues. However, cyber security issues associated with Level 0,1 devices were not as adequately understood and addressed. There was also almost no discussion of the hardware backdoors in the Chinese-made transformers. My […]