Analysis on cyber threats to SCADA systems

SCADA is the acronym of supervisory control and data acquisition, which is a communication technology scheme for collecting data from distant facilities and also controlling them on control systems. By SCADA technology it is not necessary to assign operators to remote locations for operating the facilities there. In the beginning SCADA system was locally introduced, and it has been applied to larger and wide-area systems as the information technology evolves. As SCADA system expands to wide area, it has been connected to common communication infrastructure while it was a locally independent control system network initially. Since the Internet came up, all different kinds of communication networks have been being integrated into the Internet for both technological and economic efficiencies. But it also causes the SCADA system to be revealed to the cyber security risks common on the Internet at the same time. Today many major utility services are provided on SCADA networks, so it is very critical to protect the system from those risks. The damage would be very serious if one of the SCADA systems are attacked and thereby stop normal operation, therefore it should be considered to take countermeasures against the threats. Cyber security problem requires multidirectional approach considering many different aspects of vulnerabilities in the system. This paper analyzes the SCADA network vulnerabilities on the aspects of cyber security.