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SECURITY
Are you safe from
cyber-attack?
The recent widespread publicity given to the Stuxnet virus, has brought home the real threats to industrial control
systems posed by viruses and hackers. Dr Richard Piggin* examines the risks – and how to minimise them.
In his first-ever public speech, GCHQ director
Ian Lobban recently highlighted the “real
and credible” threat facing the UK’s critical
infrastructure from terrorists, organised
criminals and hostile foreign governments. He
demanded a swift response to match the
speed with which “cyber events” can occur,
and warned that the country's future
economic prosperity rested on ensuring a
defence against such assaults.
So, which systems are under threat? The
critical national infrastructure comprises
facilities, sites and networks that deliver the
essential services on which daily life depends.
This spans nine sectors: communications;
emergency services; energy; finance; food;
government; health; transport; and water. The
UK’s Centre for the Protection of National
Infrastructure (CPNI) works with the providers
of these services and government departments
to identify the critical elements and to help
protect them against national security threats.
Cyber-threats to control systems extend far
beyond energy and telecommunications
facilities. For example, activities such as food
distribution and logistics could be hit, resulting
in a loss of consumer confidence, and
potential health risks.
All are potentially
The UK’s Centre for the Protection of National
Infrastructure recommends adopting the protection
principle known as defence in depth to avoid single
points of weakness
vulnerable to targeted or accidental cyberevents
and to the actions of disgruntled
former employees.
One often-cited example is the “drive-by”
wireless hacking by an ex-employee of an
Australian sewage treatment plant. He used
his knowledge of the plant’s control system to
hack into it 46 times and to release millions of
litres of waste into public waterways. Cyberthreats
to industrial control systems are
growing, as attackers seek new targets and
sources of revenue.
> Extortion demands
The US Central Intelligence Agency has
confirmed that a cyber-attack caused power
outages in several cities in 2008, including
New Orleans. The agency has also revealed
that there have been intrusions into utilities
that have been followed by extortion
demands.
The US government has been taking the
potential reconnaissance of its power
infrastructure by Russia and
China seriously, as well as
responding to the potential for
terrorist attacks. This year, it
formed the United States
Cyber Command – a unit of
the armed forces responsible
for directing operations,
defending Department of Defense networks,
and conducting military cyberspace operations.
According to the US National Institute of
Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Guide to
Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Security,
potential incidents may include:
• blocking or delaying the flow of information
through ICS networks, thus disrupting their
operation;
• making unauthorised changes to
instructions, commands, or alarm thresholds,
which could damage, disable, or shut down
equipment, have environmental impacts,
and/or endanger human life;
• sending inaccurate information to system
operators, either to disguise unauthorised
changes, or to cause operators to initiate
inappropriate actions, which could have
various negative effects;
• modifying ICS software or configuration
settings, or infecting ICS software with
malware, which could have various negative
effects; and
• interfering with the operation of safety
systems, which could endanger human life.
NIST’s recommendations include:
• restricting physical access to ICS networks
and devices;
• protecting individual ICS components from
exploitation, using measures such as:
deploying security patches as soon as possible
after testing; disabling unused ports and
services; restricting ICS user privileges to those
that are essential; tracking and monitoring
audit trails; and using security controls such as
anti-virus software and file integrity-checking
software to prevent, deter, detect, and
mitigate malware;
• maintaining functionality during adverse
conditions – this involves designing the ICS so
that each critical component has a redundant
counterpart and, ensuring that if a
component fails, it does so in a manner that
does not generate unnecessary traffic on the
ICS or other networks or cause other
problems (such as cascading events)