courtesy Integraph
Roadmap for preventing cyber attacks on water supply
Cyber threats to industrial control systems are changing and growing. Computer attackers are seeking new targets and criminal extortion is increasing. The US water industry has published a roadmap to prevent the catastrophic results of cyber attacks on water supply. The following is an excerpt from its executive summary
Today's industrial control systems (ICS) environments are incredibly complex assemblages of technology, processes, and people that work together to successfully carry out the missions and business functions of an organization. These systems have improved water and wastewater service and increased reliability in those infrastructures. As ICS have become more affordable and easier to use, most utilities have chosen to adopt them for process monitoring and/or control. This reliance on ICS has left the water sector and other dependent critical infrastructures— such as energy, transportation, and food and agriculture—potentially vulnerable to targeted cyber attack or accidental cyber events.
A new underground digital economy now provides a multi-billion dollar incentive for potential adversaries to exploit ICS vulnerabilities. In today's highly dynamic and expanding digital economy, much of the ICS that operate our current water sector infrastructure are being used in ways that were never intended. Many ICS were designed decades ago with little or no consideration of cyber security. Increasing connectivity, the proliferation of access points, escalating system complexity, and wider use of common operating systems and platforms have all contributed to heightened security risks.
Any interruption of a clean and safe water supply could erode public confidence or, worse, produce significant public health and economic consequences. The urgent need to mitigate the risks associated with cyber systems has prompted industry and government leaders to step forward and collaborate on a unified security strategy. Their efforts have produced the Roadmap to Secure Control Systems in the Water Sector, which presents a vision and supporting framework of goals and milestones for reducing the risk of ICS over the next ten years.
This strategic framework enables industry and government to align their programs and investments, improving ICS security quickly and efficiently. The roadmap integrates the insights and ideas of a broad cross-section of asset owners and operators, industrial control systems experts, and government leaders who met during workshops held in September and December 2007.
By implementing this roadmap, water sector industry leaders believe that within 10 years, ICS throughout the water sector will be able to operate with no loss of critical function in vital applications during and after a cyber event. This vision confronts the formidable technical, business, operational, and societal challenges that lie ahead in strengthening the resilience of critical systems against increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks.
www.awwa.org/files/GovtPublicAffairs/PDF/WaterSecurityRoadmap031908.pdf
