Security of Cyber Physical Systems

Utilities—water, gas, oil, electricity, and communications—are critical
infrastructures that rely heavily on industrial networks and automated
control systems. The disruption of any of these systems, could impact our
society and our safety. Of the common utilities, electricity is often
separated as requiring more extensive security. Oil and gas refining and
distribution are systems that should be treated as both chemical/hazardous
material as well as a critical component of our infrastructures.

There are various internal threats and external threats to SCADA systems
from various categories. In the first category, there is a threat posed by
a company’s own employees. Company insiders have access to internal
controls and data, and either by accident or malicious intent can cause
equipment outages. In the second category, there are organized groups with
a specific goal like terrorists. A third category of threat is the threat
posed by casual hackers. When considering the closed characteristics of
SCADA systems in electric power industry compared to others, 1st and 2nd
category threats are comparatively probable threats. It is very important
and necessary to define and classify the concrete threats and
vulnerabilities for building security countermeasures for protecting the
SCADA system.

About Dr. Zia Saquib:

Dr. Zia Saquib did his Bachelors from REC Rourkela,  Masters from Florida
Institute of Technology, USA and Ph.D. from NIT Surat. He worked at HAL
Bengaluru, Florida Institute of Technology, Vanstar Corporation, Ocwen
Financial and Infotec of Florida before joining C-DAC, where he also heads
the Computer Networks and Internet Engineering Research group. He is the
Chief Investigator of the project 'Cyber-security of SCADA Systems' and is
the Architect of e-Pramaan Authentication System for the National e-
Governance Plan of Govt. of India. Dr Saquib is a Fellow of Institution of
Engineering and Technology (UK) and is Senior Member of IEEE.