TD Experience with Control System Cyber Security and Potential Impacts from Proposed Regulations

摘要

Dramatic steps are being taken to ensure security against physical attacks and increased emphasis is being placed on securing the Internet and networking systems for traditional IT business systems. However, the same cannot be said for operational control systems, which are at the heart of our critical infrastructures and endemic across many industries. Control systems include supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, Remote Terminal Units (RTUs), Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs), and Distributed Control Systems (DCSs) and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) - also referred to as process control systems (PCSs). These systems are crucial to the operations of, and form the backbone of, the global industrial infrastructures. The industrial infrastructures include electric power, oil and gas, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, water, paper, metal refining, auto manufacturing, transportation, and food processing to name a few. There are a limited number of operational control systems suppliers, and the same systems are sold virtually in every country throughout the world. There is a growing threat of cyber attacks on operational control systems that could create a crisis for which no country, company, or person is adequately prepared.