August 2012

32 Minutes to Understanding SCADA Security

Submitted by Heather MacKenzie on Wed, 2012-08-01 21:00

Engineers as well as IT staff in the process control and SCADA industries have varying levels of knowledge about industrial cyber security. We come across this regularly when talking to people at industry events or speaking with customers or partners. To help you, no matter where you are in the learning curve, we have recently released a five-part video series.

This article summarizes the videos and provides you with direct access to them.

ICS Security and VLANs – Boogeyman or Helper?

Submitted by oliver.kleineberg on Thu, 2012-08-09 08:51

Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) should not be counted on as a security feature of modern managed Ethernet switch networks. This is now common knowledge, both in IT departments and also in the Industrial Control Community. Indeed in Eric Byres’ article Why VLAN Security isn't SCADA Security at all he points out that switches with VLANS are not firewalls. But are VLANs the boogeyman of industrial control system security...or are they underestimated helpers?

Industrial Network Security – Evaluating the Risks

Submitted by thomas.nuth on Tue, 2012-08-14 10:06

Finding a way to determine the right level of investment in ICS and SCADA Security has been an ongoing challenge for industry. In an earlier article the Total Cost of Ownership approach for calculating investment level was described. Today I present another method called Value at Risk (VaR).

SCADA Air Gaps – Technology or Philosophy?

Submitted by Eric Byres on Wed, 2012-08-22 10:33

Over the past month, I have received a number of emails and seen a number of LinkedIn articles suggesting that I was attacking the concept of data diodes when I stated that Air Gaps are a myth. Unfortunately, this is a serious misunderstanding of my message to the SCADA/ICS community.

Honeywell Leads ICS and SCADA World with ISASecure Certifications

Submitted by Eric Byres on Wed, 2012-08-29 13:46

Editor's Note: This is an updated version of this article, which was first published on June 14, 2011.