Cyber Security of SCADA Systems test bed - Senior Design - Iowa ...

Executive Summary
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems are the nervous systems for the body of our
country’s infrastructure. This body includes many systems that are vital to the function of our society:
power, water, natural gas, oil, and road traffic systems—among many others. However, the nervous
systems (SCADA systems) that control our infrastructure are currently vulnerable to cyber-attack. “Since
the mid-1990’s, security experts have become increasingly concerned about the threat of malicious
cyber-attacks on the vital supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems used to monitor and
manage our energy systems. Most SCADA system designs did not anticipate the security threats posed
by today’s reliance on common software and operating systems, public telecommunication networks,
and the Internet.”
With the critical infrastructure of the SCADA systems and the security threats on these systems, it is
important to research ways to correct potential security vulnerabilities. A SCADA test bed will be used
for this research. This project will expand on the initial test bed created last year and make it more
suitable for real-life scenarios and cyber security attacks.
The previous senior design team created the initial SCADA test bed. This test bed included 2 Control
Centers, 2 RTUs, 2 Relays, 3 SCALANCEs for encrypted communication, a web server, a DTS, and a light
board for demonstrating when a relay trips or is closed. The previous team also tested basic cyberattacks
against the system. They were able to demonstrate a basic man-in-the-middle attack that would
disrupt commands sent by the control center. The initial test bed was a great start and this year’s senior
design team will improve on the test bed.
The goals of this year’s senior design team are to expand the test bed to more nodes, integrate power
flow analysis and test more advanced attacks. The basic approach for these goals is to use virtualization
software to expand the test bed’s nodes, use power flow software for the analysis and use advanced
vulnerability assessment tools for testing cyber-attacks. This approach will create a more thorough test
bed that is similar to real-world systems, allow for power flow analysis and create cyber-attacks that will
show vulnerabilities of the system.
Acknowledgement
Technical expertise of the test bed has been provided by Iowa State University graduate students Adam
Hahn, Aditya Ashok and Siddharth Sridhar. DigSilent expertise has been provided by Iowa State
University graduate student Jie Yan.
Problem Statement
General Problem Statement
Our goal is to improve the cyber security of SCADA systems by making our own SCADA test bed, where
we can simulate power systems and the communication protocols they use, and attempt cyber-attacks
on our systems. Through this process, we can test vulnerabilities of commercial SCADA protection
products report their vulnerabilities. We can also demonstrate the effects a SCADA cyber-attack can
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