Tag Archives: security

Security infrastructure for safeguarding industrial systems against cyber attacks and viruses

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Industrial Security:  CIFS (Common Internet File System)

Written by Amandeep Yashpal, Product Specialist – Cyber Security & Networks – UAE

The Common Internet File System (CIFS) is the standard way that computer users share files across corporate intranets and the Internet.  An enhanced version of the Microsoft open, cross-platform Server Message Block (SMB) protocol, CIFS is a native file-sharing protocol in Windows 2000.

In operational environment, the life of an appliance is three to four years and it is easy to replace this appliance with a new appliance laced with advance technology. However, in an industrial environment, the life of a digital asset is 15 to 20 years and it’s a challenging job to always make any change in the critical environment.

In manifold industries, computer with window XP and older operating systems are in operation while Microsoft ended support for Window XP on April 8, 2014. Afterwards, Microsoft did not provide any security patch and other kind of support for the Window XP operating system.  Systems with an old operating system without updates  are more vulnerable to attacks and hence increase the attack surface.

To overcome this problem, secure the vulnerable system and protect  it from any malicious attack, Phoenix Contact came up with mGuard CIFS Integrity Monitoring Solution, which is in demand for protecting the systems having old operating systems in an industrial environment.

With mGuard CIFS Integrity Monitoring, Phoenix Contact offers an award-winning, industry suitable solution to protect Windows-based automation components against malware infestation. To achieve this, mGuard Integrity Monitoring supervises file systems against unexpected modifications or additions to programs, dynamic link libraries, and other executable code without utilizing virus patterns – thus eliminating the need for their permanent update. This innovation can even detect damages from zero day exploits for which virus patterns don’t even exist yet.

Benefit of CIFS

  • Secure | reliable identification of malware modifications
  • Independent | no need for anti-virus pattern updates
  • Slim | reduced impacts on your system and real-time performance

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Secure Industrial Networks [Cyber Security]

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Written by Amandeep Yashpal, Product Specialist – Cyber Security & Networks – UAE

Cyber security is a vital part of the process and infrastructure industry operations

Nowadays, Cyber security is a vital part of the process and infrastructure industry operations. Industrial cyber security refers to the protection of internal components and systems from internal and external malicious attacks to maintain the Availability, Integrity, and Confidentiality. It protects the industries against loss or damage.

Most of the network devices used in the industrial network are designed to meet functional requirement, safety, reliability and real time response. They were physically isolated from the outside networks. Most of the time only proprietary protocol and solutions are used for the industry network. At a later stage, TCP/IP protocol is introduced to industry networks which connect the industrial network to an external network. The introduction of TCP/IP to industrial networks, create new possibilities for better connectivity and also provide rich opportunities to adversaries to exploit the vulnerabilities.

The root cause of this intense new risk relates to the complexity of ICS legacy system that was never originally designed to stop cyber-attacks. Legacy water pump installed over the plant 15 years back, were obviously not designed to address modern cyber security attacks.  Complex legacy technology and high attack consequences lead to a high cyber security risk for most industrial networks. It could be any reason for such incidents to happen. Likewise

  • Lack of redundancy in the network.
  • No segmentation of network.
  • No security perimeter is defined.
  • Firewall is not incorporated in the network architecture.
  • No deep inspection of packets moving from field device to field device or control server.
  • Insecure remote connections.
  • Lack of compatibility of security architectural components with legacy protocols and system.
  • No mechanism to identify the changes in configuration of field device and files.

The biggest challenge in the ICS and SCADA security protection is that the infrastructure used in ICS & SCADA is having significant legacy technology. This includes older protocol and proprietary control components. Continue reading

Protecting Industrial Networks – defense-in-depth security

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SCADA Security for Municipal Water

Without Water

Protecting industrial networks - Water/ wastewater

The fact that water is the elixir of all life forms, human beings can live for months without food, but only for a matter of days without water. Life can still exist without the presence of electricity or fossil fuels but not so without fresh water.

Urban water usage worldwide is 31 gallons a day per person, with usage in undeveloped area averaging 18 gallons a day. In the western world, 100 to 150 gallons per person per day is more typical, although people only consume 10% of the total production supply. Agriculture consumes about 70% and industry about 20%.

Providing and protecting the security of that supply is a reasonable mandate. The water supply is an essential part of the critical infrastructure.

The water industry recognized these systems needed even more security after the 2006 conviction of a hacker who seized control of a water treatment facility’s SCADA system in Australia. This security breach resulted in the dumping of millions of gallons of raw sewage onto a resort hotel’s grounds for a period of three months.

As a result, water providers realized that many industrial controls would benefit from Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity and diverse firewalls behind the front-office firewalls. Here is how one leading and progressive utility is securing the industrial control networks of their extensive network infrastructure.

A simple solutions is available

Protecting industrial networks - mGuard

There are proven “defense-in-depth” security products available to provide protection for industrial networks. The mGuard industrial network security appliances have been widely utilized to protect industrial automation equipment and processes running the newest and oldest operating systems. Among other formats and applications, the mGuard is available as a small, DIN-mount module for factory enclosures, easily enabled by technicians rather than network administrators. It incorporates router, firewall, encrypted VPN tunnels, filtering of incoming and outgoing connectivity and CIFS functions, to provide distributed defense-in-depth, economically and without disturbing production.

For more information about mGuard security appliances, please click here.

United Water Secure Network Infrastructure

United Water operates and manages water and wastewater systems that serve about 7 million people across the United States of America. In 2009, United Water began to look for an industrial security solution particularly for their remote sites. A solution that is easy to configure, powered by 24 VDC, meets their IT security standards and can last long under harsh weather conditions.

In 2010, United Water became aware of the award winning mGuard industrial network security devices from Phoenix Contact, created and developed by their subsidiary Innominate Security Technologies. As Mr. Keith Kolkebeck – the Systems Engineering Project Manager for United Water – mentioned in a recent interview, United Water currently deploy mGuard security modules in multiple locations throughout the Northeast and have used the products both for their SCADA networks and their security networks at remote locations. They have interfaced the mGuard devices with their existing CISCO infrastructure. Not only that, they are also saving money on remote support from their staff and outside contractors and they are saving time and effort visiting sites for minor code changes for troubleshooting.

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For more information, visit Phoenix Contact Cyber Security page.