Improving Control System Security through the Evaluation of Current Trends in Computer Security Research

Technical Report · Tue Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/911610· OSTI ID:911610

Rolston,

At present, control system security efforts are primarily technical and reactive in nature. What has been overlooked is the need for proactive efforts, focused on the IT security research community from which new threats might emerge. Evaluating cutting edge IT security research and how it is evolving can provide defenders with valuable information regarding what new threats and tools they can anticipate in the future. Only known attack methodologies can be blocked, and there is a gap between what is known to the general security community and what is being done by cutting edge researchers --both those trying to protect systems and those trying to compromise them. The best security researchers communicate with others in their field; they know what cutting edge research is being done; what software can be penetrated via this research; and what new attack techniques and methodologies are being circulated in the black hat community. Standardization of control system applications, operating systems, and networking protocols is occurring at a rapid rate, following a path similar to the standardization of modern IT networks. Many attack methodologies used on IT systems can be ported over to the control system environment with little difficulty. It is extremely important to take advantage of the lag time between new research, its use on traditional IT networks, and the time it takes to port the research over for use on a control system network. Analyzing nascent trends in IT security and determining their applicability to control system networks provides significant information regarding defense mechanisms needed to secure critical infrastructure more effectively. This work provides the critical infrastructure community with a better understanding of how new attacks might be launched, what layers of defense will be needed to deter them, how the attacks could be detected, and how their impact could be limited.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-99ID13727
• OSTI ID: 911610
• Report Number(s): INL/EXT-05-00109
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
COMPUTERS
CONTROL SYSTEMS
EVALUATION
SECURITY
STANDARDIZATION
computer
control system
control system security
security