Attacks on our national infrastructure are already happening. And the expectation is that they will continue to increase at an accelerated rate. For this week’s discussion, we’ll cover threats to our nation’s pipelines. To get started, read these articles:
https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060054924
https://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/disrupting-the-flow-exposed-and-vulnerable-water-and-energy-infrastructures/
After reading the articles, start a discussion thread and discuss how the types of threats discussed in the articles could impact our economy, and how implementing Diversity and Commonality (as discussed in chapters 4 and 5) could help mitigate these threats. Then, ask three questions about diversity and commonality in the context of national infrastructure security.
You must do this following:
NOTE: You MUST post your initial thread no later than 11:59pm EDT on Sunday, 11 Nov. This gives other students ample time to answer your questions by the final assignment due date of 14 Nov.
1) Create a new thread. As indicated above, discuss how the types of threats discussed in the articles referenced above could impact our economy, and how implementing Diversity and Commonality (as discussed in chapters 4 and 5) could help mitigate these threats. Then, ask three questions about diversity and commonality in the context of national infrastructure security.
2) Select AT LEAST 3 other students’ threads and post substantive comments on those threads. Your comments should answer AT LEAST one of the questions posed in the thread and extend the conversation started with that thread.
ALL original posts and comments must be substantive. (I’m looking for about a paragraph – not just a short answer.)
Hello everyone,
The three of the most central Critical infrastructures now we will be discussing are Energy, Water and Natural gas. Latest technologies have been a major part in the distribution of resources. Human Machine interfaces HMIs made vulnerability in the systems for the reason to increase Critical infrastructures.
As per the author, under the sectors of Energy and water, there are different sub sectors in the various regions of the world like oil and gas, bio gas, power for energy related, also for the water related sub sectors including water heating, geothermal, water pumping. Due to the loopholes of HMIs, Attackers can gather information from the systems which can make the scenarios vulnerable.
Few years ago there was an attack on natural gas utilities which caused the government and the US pipeline operations huge problem due to the huge threats of cyber attacks. Cyber security is very important for each level of the supply chain as well as for every Critical infrastructure chain. Vulnerabilities and threats are major issues in CIs. As per my perception, having blueprints in all the sectors to ensure the threats of cyber attacks that could happen in the future. There are many hacking groups that have declared that natural gas business is the prime targets. Networking of natural gas involves two-way stream of data through SCADA which is Supervisory control and data acquisition, and the data will be sent to “remote terminal units” from the valve stations along the pipeline to measure the health of network overall.
Views on protecting the National Infrastructure which could help mitigating the threats :
Before discussing about how to protect the infrastructure we should think what is being protected is not the infrastructure itself but the services it provides. With regard to threats, the policy goal should be to build capabilities for prevention of attacks that interrupt such services and for effective response and rapid recovery when such attacks do occur. Having a high quality infrastructure provides a strong foundation for rebounding from threats. The government should encourage the private sector, which owns most infrastructure, to invest in quality. The federal government could offer additional benefits to promote private-sector protection and resiliency efforts, such as beginning and building a public recognition program for firms that accomplish noteworthy success.
Broaden education, awareness, and training for security professionals charged with protecting America’s infrastructure, while promoting critical-infrastructure research and development.
References:
https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060054924
Questions:
Explain briefly how diversity can help stop worm propagation in any infrastructure?
- Can it be possible to make use of more HMIs in national networks and preserve jobs, as automation is killing jobs?
- Does having a government regulated body visit in regular intervals for security audit improves the visibility of security flaws?
How does the Cybersecurity in water sector with legacy hardware or software affect the economy?
- What is the agenda to enhance the security of cyber-reliant critical National Infrastructure ?
