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 […]
Category: Unfettered
Texas power outages demonstrate grid cyber vulnerability and inadequacy of existing regulations
Recent Texas power outages and the loss of both electricity and water across Texas demonstrate how vulnerable ERCOT and Texas are to not only natural disasters such as snowstorms and hurricanes but also manmade and malicious activities. More than that, it also demonstrates the vulnerability of the entire U.S. Energy grid. The good news is […]
Why America would not survive a real first strike cyberattack today
Mike Rogers is a former member of Congress who served as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He is the David Abshire Chair at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress and is a senior fellow with the Intelligence Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. […]
Don’t overlook the most consequential control system cyber events of 2020
URL: https://www.controlglobal.com/blogs/unfettered/dont-overlook-the-most-consequential-control-system-cyber-events-of-2020/ Two of the most consequential control system cyber events (attacks) in 2020 were supply chain attacks. The first event was the Chinese installing hardware backdoors in large electric transformers, an incident that prompted Presidential Executive Order (EO) 13920. The hardware backdoors are obvious control system threats. The second event was the Russian SolarWinds […]
OT v. ICS Survey
Out of 113 votes, the following percentages are broken in 4 components: OT and ICS are the same 8% OT and ICS are different 16% OT is a sub-component of ICS 9% ICS is a sub component of OT 67% This survey was conducted sometime mid-November, 2020
The SolarWinds hack can directly affect control systems
A highly sophisticated Russian Intelligence group has compromised the SolarWinds Orion platform which has an estimated 18,000 customers and an unknown but vast number of sites. The SolarWinds advisories and webinars have focused on the IT networks, network visibility, and data exfiltration/compromise. However, SolarWinds is also used to directly monitor and CONTROL SNMP devices including […]
Lack of IoT HVAC control system cyber security and potential real-world impacts
A new IoT valve/actuator from a major HVAC equipment supplier has not only no device security. A further look at the supplier’s catalog shows additional products that communicate using common building insecure communication protocols such as BACnet and Modbus. The ability to remotely control these valves/actuators allows for unauthorized control of a building’s environmental control […]
The Chinese hardware backdoors can cause transformer failures through the load tap changers
As I was reviewing my blogs for a paper I was preparing, I found a nuclear power plant incident involving a station auxiliary transformer load tap changer (LTC) failure. Substation transformers have been acknowledged as the Achilles heel of the electric industry. As a result, the 2015 FAST (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) Act contained a […]
Another view of supply chain risks – third suppliers
Several years ago I was doing a control system cyber risk assessment for a regional transit agency. The most significant safety issue was the Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) transit bus refueling facility. The LNG facility was on the transit agency property and was for use for the LNG-powered transit buses and other LNG-powered agency vehicles. […]
A critical look at the CSIS Report “Dismissing Cyber Catastrophe”
Jim Lewis is a Sr VP at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He wrote the article “Dismissing Cyber Catastrophe” dated August 17, 2020 – https://www.csis.org/analysis/dismissing-cyber-catastrophe?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=e4d5b3e04c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_11_08_05_05_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-e4d5b3e04c-221758737 . In ‘Dismissing Cyber Catastrophe,’ Jim argues that concerns about industrial cyber security are overblown and the risk is exaggerated. Because the view that ‘cyber catastrophes’ are […]