Industrial control systems (ICS), distributed control systems (DCS), supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA) have all been around for decades, but thanks to Stuxnet, DuQu and other major incidents, these systems have recently began receiving serious security consideration.

When it comes to securing SCADA networks, we are years or even decades behind when compared to securing typical IT networks. In this article, I will present some of the SCADA security’s most daunting challenges along with some recommendations to secure SCADA networks.

1. A SCADA network is inadvertently connected to a company’s IT network or even to the internet

Companies believe that their SCADA networks are air-gapped or separated from other networks in their organizations. In some cases, business needs require data from SCADA systems (like electric outage information, etc.) to be exposed on the internet. And during this implementation, the secure network diagram on paper starts deviating to the insecure configurations of the real world.

A search for ‘data presentation and control’ software on the internet yields SCADA systems with management services exposed to the internet. If an organization's SCADA network is not securely connected with the IT network, worms can jump from the HR desktops or reception kiosk into the SCADA network.


Recommendation: Based on available resources, use a mapping tool or professional service (who will use some tools on your behalf) to investigate your SCADA network connectivity and deviations from the securenetwork diagram on paper. Caution: Not all tools are created equal and a blind scan of your network could knock down SCADA components like PLCs, RTUs and IEDs. Thus, it is important to ask your tool vendors if the tool has ever beenused in SCADA environment and if a SCADA configuration is available.

2.‘Data presentation and control’ now runs off-the-shelf software

Long gone are the days when control systems ran on proprietary or custom platforms. Most SCADA systems today use off-the-shelf operating systems, standard browsers and other technologies which are used in desktop environments. Hackers can easily create exploits that target the underlying software vulnerabilities to infect and propagate their worms.

Recommendation: Use your IT experience to deal with IT problems. Scan for vulnerabilities in your IT and SCADA networks and patch them as soon as possible. Our research has shown that patching is the most simple yet effective solution.