Trusted Computing Group

We all agree that SCADA and Industrial Control System security needs to improve. However there is a lot of disagreement on what exactly needs to happen to make security for industrial systems easier to deploy and more effective.

Readers of this blog are familiar with the significantly increased level of threat to industrial control systems (ICS) that the Stuxnet malware and the publication of many SCADA zero-day vulnerabilities have created.

It is no secret that control systems have changed dramatically over the last 25 years. While those changes have brought great rewards, they have also introduced fierce threats, like Stuxnet.

Sometimes, however, it’s helpful to step back and look at those changes from a distance. What types of things have changed? What were the drivers that caused the change to happen? Maybe (if we’re lucky) we can use the knowledge gained from this reflection to predict how control systems are likely to evolve in the next decade or so.