OPC Security

Author Mike Miclot

Nobody likes the job of replacing a good team member when they retire. Yet, that is the job the manufacturing industry is faced with as a trusted component of the industrial application ecosystem steps down from active duty. That component is the Windows XP operating system (OS), a workhorse of a product that is pervasive in factories, energy facilities and many critical infrastructure systems around the world.

Author Mike Miclot

On the eve of April 8, Microsoft retired support for the Windows XP operating system (OS) – leaving millions of Windows XP users susceptible to accidental and deliberate security issues. Though the retirement had been long planned and with fair warning, industrial network users are just beginning to comprehend the ramifications.

How can I reliably and easily secure my control system?

A lot of people are re-examining this question and giving it higher priority after learning about Stuxnet and the recent publishing of SCADA system vulnerabilities on the Internet.  It is no longer possible to believe that ‘air gaps’ between your systems and the rest of the world, or that ‘security by obscurity’ are effective security strategies.

When you hear the words “defense–in-depth” do you immediately think of layers of firewalls?

If so, you are not alone – most of us immediately think of security concepts in traditional physical security terms.  For example, we imagine “more defense” as being more moats and castle walls around the crown jewels.  But that is not the only way (or even the best way) to create secure ICS or SCADA systems.

Just about everyone who has ever commissioned an OPC Classic-based system has at least one horror story about how product X did the really strange and unexpected. And if you are in the security business like me, often the story is about how the particular product violated every reasonable security requirement known to man.