Book Image

Industrial Cybersecurity

By : Pascal Ackerman
Book Image

Industrial Cybersecurity

By: Pascal Ackerman

Overview of this book

With industries expanding, cyber attacks have increased significantly. Understanding your control system’s vulnerabilities and learning techniques to defend critical infrastructure systems from cyber threats is increasingly important. With the help of real-world use cases, this book will teach you the methodologies and security measures necessary to protect critical infrastructure systems and will get you up to speed with identifying unique challenges.Industrial cybersecurity begins by introducing Industrial Control System (ICS) technology, including ICS architectures, communication media, and protocols. This is followed by a presentation on ICS (in) security. After presenting an ICS-related attack scenario, securing of the ICS is discussed, including topics such as network segmentation, defense-in-depth strategies, and protective solutions. Along with practical examples for protecting industrial control systems, this book details security assessments, risk management, and security program development. It also covers essential cybersecurity aspects, such as threat detection and access management. Topics related to endpoint hardening such as monitoring, updating, and anti-malware implementations are also discussed.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)

Industrial Control Systems

If you purchased, borrowed or otherwise picked up this book, there is a good chance you are concerned about Industrial Controls System or ICS security in some way. Along with regular cyber security, ICS security is a hot topic these days. Not a day goes by without some company getting compromised, critical infrastructure controls systems getting infiltrated or our personal information getting splattered all over the internet. As a matter of fact, while writing this book, the following major security events occurred, some even influenced the material of this book:

By writing this book I am embarking in educating the reader in the process of securing an Industrial control system by applying industry-wide adopted best practice methods and technologies. The book will use a fictive company as a silver lining throughout the learning process. The company isn't directly based on any real-time business but more a cumulative set of experiences of security postures and situations I have encountered over time.

Before we can dive into any security discussions, with this first chapter, we will discuss exactly what an Industrial control system (ICS), is and what it does. We will look at the different parts that make up an Industrial control system. From an architectural perspective, we will examine the individual parts that can be found in modern day ICSes and look at how they work together to accomplish a common task. We will end the chapter with an examination of the various industrial communication protocols that are used to connect all the parts, systems, and devices in an ICS. This includes a high-level explanation of the Purdue model, a reference model commonly used to explain Industrial control system.