Cyber (In-)security of industrial control systems: A societal challenge

Abstract

Our society and its citizens increasingly depend on the undisturbed functioning of critical infrastructures (CI), their products and services. Many of the CI services as well as other organizations use Industrial Control Systems (ICS) to monitor and control their mission-critical processes. Therefore, it is crucial that the functioning of ICS is well protected inter alia against cyber threats. The cyber threat areas to ICS comprise the lack of proper governance as well as cyber security aspects related to organizational, system and network management, technology and technical issues. Moreover, newer functionality entering organizations is often controlled by embedded ICS which hide itself from those that are responsible for cyber security. The immature cyber security posture of ICS and their connectivity with public networks pose a major risk to society. This article explores the threats, provide some examples of cyber incidents with ICS, and will discuss the ICS security challenges to our societies.