Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Systems and Cyber-Security: Best Practices to Secure Critical Infrastructure

摘要

In the critical infrastructure world, many critical infrastructure sectors use a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. The sectors that use SCADA systems are the electric power, nuclear power and water. These systems are used to control, monitor and extract data from the systems that give us all the ability to light our homes and keep the world moving. However, the SCADA systems were developed in the 1960's and the developers of the network never imagined the world would be connected the way it is. Everything is connected through ones and zeros. SCADA systems are also connected by ones and zeros. This makes SCADA systems a vulnerable target to hackers, nation states and hack-tivists from around the world. Since the early 1980's there have been multiple breaches of power plants, water treatment facilities and transportation on a cyber-security level. The hackers gained access to sensitive systems, which in many cases caused physical damage to the systems people rely on for their daily lives. The question this project will attempt to answer what is being done to help protect SCADA systems from cyber-attacks. There is a need to protect these systems from a cyber-security perspective, and it is the aim of this paper to help get the conversation about SCADA system cyber-security initiated.