Investigating the security of electrical power systems SCADA

Abstract

Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems control and monitor the majority of the utility networks today. The increased number of attacks on computer systems and computer networks has resulted in an increased concern of security issues in inter-networked industrial automation systems. Internal and external saboteurs pose a big threat that could disrupt power delivery. To give us a better understanding of the nature of the vulnerabilities to supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA) systems and highlight the need to defend and protect the SCADA systems from ongoing cyber threats, we investigate the vulnerabilities and ways to protect them which are unique to SCADA systems. We achieve this by studying SCADA communication systems as well as taking a survey of common SCADA vendors; we focus our attention to SCADA on the electric power grid. We find that SCADA vendors do not implement adequate security measures in their products, and we recommend that a security policy be put in place to ensure the security of the vital public infrastructures.