May 2012

Securing Control Systems with System Integrators

Submitted by Frank Williams on Thu, 2012-05-03 21:00

Last week both Tofino Security and Belden participated in the Control Systems Integrators Conference in Scottsdale Arizona. The conference is organized by the Control Systems Integrators Association (CSIA) and this year the event boasted 500 System Integrator companies in attendance.

Why SCADA Firewalls Need to be Stateful – Part 3 of 3

Submitted by Joel Langill on Wed, 2012-05-09 11:59

In Part 1 of this series I explained what “state” means in network communications and the hazards of stateless security.  Part 2  detailed the behavior of a stateless firewall and included a demonstration of me attacking one. In this closing article, I describe stateful inspection and its importance in securing ICS and SCADA systems.

Using ANSI/ISA-99 Standards for SCADA Security (plus White Paper)

Submitted by Eric Byres on Wed, 2012-05-16 21:00

Recently I wrote about one of the fundamentals of industrial cyber security, which is the concept of Defense in Depth.

Today I am going to write about another foundation concept, which goes hand-in-hand with Defense in Depth, and that is using ANSI/ISA-99 Standards to improve control system security.

Factors that have degraded Control Network Security

There are two opposing trends impacting control network design today:

SCADA Security and Fault Tolerance - A Beautiful Pairing!

Submitted by oliver.kleineberg on Wed, 2012-05-23 21:00

Note from Eric Byres:  Oliver Kleineberg makes his debut today as a blogger for Practical SCADA Security and we welcome his expertise in the areas of fault tolerance and redundant networking.  He has recently joined Tofino Security from Hirschmann, our sister company, based in Germany (and both of our groups are part of Belden).

Flame Malware and SCADA Security: What are the Impacts?

Submitted by Eric Byres on Tue, 2012-05-29 21:00

Over the weekend a new super worm exploded onto the cyber security landscape. Known as Flame or sKyWIper, it appears to be targeting sites in the Middle East, just like the Stuxnet and Duqu worms did. But what does it have to do with SCADA or ICS security? At this stage the answer appears to be nothing and…everything.