Chemical Engineering July 2013 - 32

Cover Story
Feature Report
Securing Industrial
Control Systems
ICSs are vulnerable
targets to cyber attacks.
More than conventional
IT-security solutions are
needed to protect them
Andrew Ginter
Waterfall Security Solutions
S
ecurity of SCADA (supervisory
control and data acquisition) and
other industrial control systems
(ICSs) is a complex subject, and
one that has received much attention
in recent years. While modern industrial
control systems use many of the
same computers, operating systems
and networking components as conventional
business networks, the two
kinds of networks are managed very
differently. As a result, what is " common
wisdom " on business networks
can be utter nonsense on control system
networks.
On the other hand, control system
networks are notoriously vulnerable
to certain kinds of attacks, and
whether common security wisdom
works on these networks or not,
these vulnerabilities must still be addressed.
This article looks at what the
differences between control-system
and business networks are, what is
working and what is not, and at what
leading security practitioners in the
chemical process industries (CPI), as
well as other industries, are doing to
address these problems.
Safety first
Cybersecurity concerns for business
networks are prioritized according to
" confidentiality, integrity and availability, "
in that order. Most existing
advice for industrial cybersecurity
suggests that on industrial networks,
these priorities are often reversed so
that availability and integrity are the
highest priorities for industrial networks.
While this was the best wisdom
available when much of this advice
was written, we know better now.
Every time any group of people at
a chemical facility gathers for a meeting,
the first order of business, without
exception, is safety. The discussions include
familiar statements, such as " Are
there any newcomers in the group? A
long, continuous alarm means evacuate
the building. The emergency exits
are around the corner to your left, " and
so on.
Safety is the highest priority at every
industrial site, and also for every control
system network. For every change
to any control system component we
always ask " how likely is it that this
change will kill anyone? " or " will it
create a public safety risk? " or " will it
cause an environmental catastrophe? "
When we have acceptable answers to
those questions, we ask " how likely
30 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2013
is it that the proposed change will so
badly impair the operation of the control
system that we are forced to shut
down this billion-dollar physical asset,
because we are no longer confident of
our ability to operate it safely? " Safety
is always our first priority, and reliability
is our second. And yes, sometimes
we have trade secrets to protect
as well.
What does this mean for cybersecurity?
Consider the business network
in any large enterprise. Millions of
Web pages and hundreds of thousands
of emails are pulled into the network
every day. Each of those Web pages
and each of those emails is a potential
attack. Business networks are under
constant attack. How do professionals
deal with this constant, pervasive
threat? In part, they deal with it
through constant, aggressive change.
" Stay ahead of the bad guys. " Update
anti-virus signatures several times
per day. Apply the latest vendor security
updates within two days of the
vendor's release.
http://WWW.CHE.COM
Chemical Engineering July 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering July 2013
