Everything is awesome! or is it? Cyber security risks in critical infrastructure

Abstract

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) play an important role in the monitoring, control and automation of critical infrastructure such as water, gas, oil and electricity. Recent years have seen a number of high profile cyber attacks on such infrastructure exemplified by Stuxnet and the Ukrainian Power Grid attacks. This naturally begs the question: how should we manage cyber security risks in such infrastructure on which the day-to-day functioning of societies rely? What are the complexities of managing security in a landscape shaped by the often competing demands of a variety of stakeholders, e.g., managers, control engineers, enterprise IT personnel and field site operators? What are the challenges posed by the convergence of Internet of Things (IoT) and critical infrastructure through the so-called Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)? In this paper, we discuss insights from a multi-year programme of research investigating these issues and the challenges to addressing them.