Assessing and augmenting SCADA cyber security: a survey of techniques

SCADA systems monitor and control critical infrastructures of national importance such as power generation and distribution, water supply, transportation networks, and manufacturing facilities. The pervasiveness, miniaturisations and declining costs of internet connectivity have transformed these systems from strictly isolated to highly interconnected networks. The connectivity provides immense benefits such as reliability, scalability and remote connectivity, but at the same time exposes an otherwise isolated and secure system, to global cyber security threats. This inevitable transformation to highly connected systems thus necessitates effective security safeguards to be in place as any compromise or downtime of SCADA systems can have severe economic, safety and security ramifications. One way to ensure vital asset protection is to adopt a viewpoint similar to an attacker to determine weaknesses and loopholes in defences. Such mind sets help to identify and fix potential breaches before their exploitation. This paper surveys tools and techniques to uncover SCADA system vulnerabilities. A comprehensive review of the selected approaches is provided along with their applicability

The future of Cybersecurity in Italy: Strategic focus area

This volume has been created as a continuation of the previous one, with the aim of outlining a set of focus areas and actions that the Italian Nation research community considers essential. The book touches many aspects of cyber security, ranging from the definition of the infrastructure and controls needed to organize cyberdefence to the actions and technologies to be developed to be better protected, from the identification of the main technologies to be defended to the proposal of a set of horizontal actions for training, awareness raising, and risk management

European Reference Network for Critical Infrastructure Protection: ERNCIP Handbook 2018 edition

The ERNCIP network has been established to improve the protection of critical infrastructures in the EU. The European Reference Network for Critical Infrastructure Protection (ERNCIP) therefore works in close cooperation with all types of CIP stakeholders, focusing particularly on the technical protective security solutions. This handbook aims to assist the dissemination of the activities and results of ERNCIP. It is intended that the document will be updated and issued by the ERNCIP Office in spring each year. The information provided will be up to date as of the end of the previous calendar year, i.e. in this case as at 31 December 2017. The report summarises the achievements of all the ERNCIP Thematic Groups, providing a convenient way to access information on any specific theme of interest covered by ERNCIP. The report also describes current thematic group activities, to allow subject-matter experts and critical infrastructure operators to identify ongoing areas of research they might be interested in assisting. This report is publicly available via the ERNCIP web site, and is distributed to all ERNCIP Group of EU CIP Experts for onward dissemination within their Member States.JRC.E.2-Technology Innovation in Securit

European Reference Network for Critical Infrastructure Protection: ERNCIP Handbook 2017 edition Version 1.0

The ERNCIP network has been established to improve the protection of critical infrastructures in the EU. The European Reference Network for Critical Infrastructure Protection (ERNCIP) therefore works in close cooperation with all types of CIP stakeholders, focusing particularly on the technical protective security solutions. This handbook aims to assist the dissemination of the activities and results of ERNCIP. It is intended that the document will be updated and issued by the ERNCIP Office in spring each year. The information provided will be up to date as of the end of the previous calendar year, i.e. in this case as at 31 December 2016. The report summarises the achievements of all the ERNCIP Thematic Groups, providing a convenient way to access information on any specific theme of interest covered by ERNCIP. The report also describes current thematic group activities, to allow subject-matter experts and critical infrastructure operators to identify ongoing areas of research they might be interested in assisting. This report is publicly available via the ERNCIP web site, and is distributed to all ERNCIP Group of EU CIP Experts for onward dissemination within their Member State.JRC.E.2-Technology Innovation in Securit

A systemic review of the cybersecurity challenges in Australian water infrastructure management

Cybersecurity risks have become obstinate problems for critical water infrastructure management in Australia and worldwide. Water management in Australia involves a vast complex of smart technical control systems interconnected with several networks, making the infrastructure susceptible to cyber-attacks. Therefore, ensuring the use of security mechanisms in the control system modules and communication networks for sensors and actuators is vital. The statistics show that Australia is facing frequent cyber-attacks, most of which are either undetected or overlooked or require immediate response. To address these cyber risks, Australia has changed from a country with negligible recognition of attacks on critical infrastructure to a country with improved capability to manage cyber warfare. However, little attention is paid to reducing the risk of attacks to the critical water infrastructure. This study aims to evaluate Australia’s current cybersecurity attack landscape and the implemented controls for water infrastructure using a systematic literature review (SLR). This study also compares Australia in the context of global developments and proposes future research directions. The synthesis of the evidence from 271 studies in this review indicates the importance of managing security vulnerabilities and threats in SCADA water control systems, including the need to upgrade the contemporary water security architecture to mitigate emerging risks. Moreover, human resource development with a specific focus on security awareness and training for SCADA employees is found to be lacking, which will be essential for alleviating cyber threats to the water infrastructure in Australia

A Structured Approach to Securing the Connected Car

<p>Vehicles of today have become increasingly dependent on software to handle their functionalities. Updating and maintaining the software in vehicles has therefore become a costly process for the automotive industry. By introducing wireless communications to vehicles, vehicular maintenance can greatly be improved and many other new applications can also be brought to the vehicles. However, the vehicle was not designed with security in mind. Since the vehicle is safety-critical, it is vital that such new remote services do not violate the safety and security requirements of the vehicle. Thus, this thesis presents a general approach to securing the connected car and the usefulness of the approach is demonstrated in a vehicular diagnostics scenario.</p> <p>The thesis comes in two main parts. In the first part, we address security mechanisms for the connected car. First, a survey of current mechanisms to secure the in-vehicle networks is made. Then, a description of possible communication methods with vehicles is given and a taxonomy of current entities involved in such communication is presented. The taxonomy is organised in actors, vehicle-to-X communications, network paths, and dependability and security attributes. The usefulness of the taxonomy is demonstrated by two examples.</p> <p>In the second part, we address security with respect to vehicular diagnostics. First, an overall security analysis of the interaction between the connected car and the repair shop is conducted. We find that the most imminent risk in the repair shop is the loss of authentication keys. The loss of such keys allows masquerading attacks against vehicles. To address this problem, we propose a Kerberos-inspired protocol for authentication and authorisation of the diagnostics equipment and a trusted third party is introduced.</p> <p>To conclude, this thesis shows the value of adopting a structured approach to securing the connected car. The approach has been shown to be useful for identifying threats and countermeasures and thus help improving security.</p