Evaluation of Cyber Sensors for Enhancing Situational Awareness in the ICS Environment

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) monitor and control operations associated with the national critical infrastructure (e.g., electric power grid, oil and gas pipelines and water treatment facilities). These systems rely on technologies and architectures that were designed for system reliability and availability. Security associated with ICS was never an inherent concern, primarily due to the protections afforded by network isolation. However, a trend in ICS operations is to migrate to commercial networks via TCP/IP in order to leverage commodity benefits and cost savings. As a result, system vulnerabilities are now exposed to the online community. Indeed, recent research has demonstrated that many exposed ICS devices are being discovered using readily available applications (e.g., Shodan search engine and Google-esque queries). Due to the lack of security and logging capabilities for ICS, most knowledge about attacks are derived from real world incidents after an attack has already occurred. Further, the distributed nature and volume of devices requires a cost effective solution to increase situational awareness. This research evaluates two low cost sensor platforms for enhancing situational awareness in the ICS environment. Data obtained from the sensors provide insight into attack tactics (e.g., port scans, Nessus scans, Metasploit modules, and zero-day exploits) and characteristics (e.g., attack origin, frequency, and level of persistence). The results indicate that the low cost cyber sensors perform sufficiently within the ICS environment. Furthermore, findings enable security professionals to draw an accurate, real-time awareness of the threats against ICS devices and help shift the security posture from reactionary to preventative

A Study of the Benefits Received and the Problems Encountered by Students Using the Student Audiovisual Production Laboratory at Central Washington State College

The purpose of this study is to investigate the Student Production Services provided by the Audiovisual Library to the students of Central Washington State College, with a view toward determining the benefits received and the problems encountered by the students in producing instructional media required for their college activities. The hypothesis of the study is as follows: Students using the Student Audiovisual Production Laboratory at Central Washington State College are not experiencing any major difficulties in producing the materials to meet their needs

Étude de la biodégradation de l'acide déhydroabiétique par Bacillus psychrophilus

La rivière du Saguenay (Québec, Canada) traverse une région fortement industrialisée (v.g. alumineries, papeteries) et reçoit d'importantes quantités d'eaux usées. Les teneurs en matière organique dissoute et en fibre de cellulose en suspension provenant de 4 papeteries locales sont relativement élevées dans les eaux de la Rivière et elles sont évaluéesà 29 000 tonnes par année. En plus des eaux usées industrielles, le Saguenay reçoit de grandes quantités d'eaux d'égouts domestiques, ce qui maintient une flore bactérienne relativement abondante et diversifiée dans ses eaux de surface. Parmi la matière organique provenant des papeteries, les acides résiniques abiétique et déhydroabiétique sont très toxiques pour les organismes aquatiques. Cependant, nous avons montré qu'en utilisant une population endogène de Bacillus psychrophilus, il était possible de biodégrader l'acide déhydroabiétique (ADA), un acide résinique non chloré. Nous avons constaté qu'après 72 heures de culture, la population bactérienne oxyde plus de 92 % de l'ADA et après 96 heures, la biodégradation est compléte. La cinétique de la biodégradation de l'ADA par B. psychrophilus a été étudiée en mesurant les fluctuations des teneurs en ATP et par chromatographie en phase gazeuse. Nous pensons que cette souche bactérienne peut jouer un rôle important dans la dépollution des eaux usées des papeteries du Saguenay.The Saguenay River (Quebec, Canada) is situated in an industrialized area (aluminium smelters, papers mills) and receives a great amount of industrial wastewaters. Concentrations of dissolved organic matter and suspended cellulose fibers from the 4 local paper mills are relatively high in the waters of the Saguenay River and are evaluated at 29 000 tons per year. Moreover, the Saguenay River receives urban wastewaters and the bacterial populations in the surface waters are abundant and diversified. Among the organic matter from the paper mills, the abietic and dehydroabietic resin acids are very toxic for aquatic organisms. Yet, we found that, with endogenous populations of Bacillus psychrophilus in the decantation-basin, it was possible to oxidize the dehydroabietic acid (DHA), a non chlorinated resinic acid. It was found that after 72 hours, more than 92 % of this pollutant was oxidized. After a period of 96 hours, biodegradation was complete. The kinetics of this reaction were studied by measuring the fluctuations of the rates of ATP and by gas chromatography. We think that this bacterial species is thus probably an important microorganism controlling the toxicity of the wastewaters from the paper mills of the Saguenay

Adhesion of Lunar Dust

This paper reviews the physical characteristics of lunar dust and the effects of various fundamental forces acting on dust particles on surfaces in a lunar environment. There are transport forces and adhesion forces after contact. Mechanical forces (i.e., from rover wheels, astronaut boots and rocket engine blast) and static electric effects (from UV photo-ionization and/or tribo-electric charging) are likely to be the major contributors to the transport of dust particles. If fine regolith particles are deposited on a surface, then surface energy-related (e.g., van der Walls) adhesion forces and static-electric-image forces are likely to be the strongest contributors to adhesion. Some measurement techniques are offered to quantify the strength of adhesion forces. And finally some dust removal techniques are discussed

Wells for In Situ Extraction of Volatiles from Regolith (WIEVR)

A document discusses WIEVRs, a means to extract water ice more efficiently than previous approaches. This water may exist in subsurface deposits on the Moon, in many NEOs (Near- Earth Objects), and on Mars. The WIEVR approach utilizes heat from the Sun to vaporize subsurface ice; the water (or other volatile) vapor is transported to a surface collection vessel where it is condensed (and collected). The method does not involve mining and extracting regolith before removing the frozen volatiles, so it uses less energy and is less costly than approaches that require mining of regolith. The only drilling required for establishing the WIEVR collection/recovery system is a well-bore drill hole. In its simplest form, the WIEVRs will function without pumps, compressors, or other gas-moving equipment, relying instead on diffusive transport and thermally induced convection of the vaporized volatiles for transport to the collection location(s). These volatile extraction wells could represent a significant advance in extraction efficiency for recovery of frozen volatiles in subsurface deposits on the Moon, Mars, or other extraterrestrial bodies

High frequency rays of cosmic origin II. Mountain peak and airplane observations

The elimination in penetrating ray experiments of temperature and pressure effects is accomplished through new features in the design of Wulf electroscopes, but especially through immediate reduction in situ of all deflections to volts. Variation of penetrating radiation with altitude and with time of day. — When suitable precautions are taken for eliminating the activity of adjacent rocks, both airplane and mountain peak observations agree in showing a definite variation of the penetrating radiation with altitude alone. Within the limits of experimental error all observations are consistent in showing no dependence of the penetrating radiation upon the time of day or upon the position of heavenly bodies. Absorption coefficients of penetrating rays. — Absorption experiments made on Pikes Peak with lead sheets 4.8 cm thick furnish evidence for the existence on mountain peaks of copious new rays of local origin of no greater hardness than that of gamma rays. If these new rays are assumed to be homogeneous their absorption coefficient is about 3.1 per meter of water. These experiments, however, furnish no definite evidence for the existence of very penetrating rays of cosmic origin. Necessary characteristics of cosmic rays if they exist — Such rays cannot produce as much as 2 ions per cc per sec. at sea level if they have an absorption coefficient not less than 0.25 per meter of water. If cosmic rays exist at all they must be less intense than this, or else they must be more penetrating than anyone has as yet suggested