Physical interfaces and their security issues

Posted on 08/06/2023, by
INCIBE (INCIBE)
Decorative image Physical interfaces and their security issues
A high percentage of devices developed for the industrial world have physical interfaces that allow secondary communications to be established. These communications allow the execution of important tasks such as the management of the devices themselves or changing the way they interact with industrial processes. Although in most cases it is necessary to have physical access to the device in order to use these interfaces, manipulation of the device through these interfaces allows attackers to manipulate the operation of the system without leaving any trace if there are no mechanisms to protect the asset from hardware hacking.This article aims to show the most widespread physical interfaces in industrial devices and embedded systems in general. On the other hand, we want to show some attacks executed throughout history in the industrial world. These attacks, thanks to the physical manipulation of a device, have allowed attackers to achieve a great impact on the targeted industrial process

LockerGoga: response and recovery actions

Posted on 01/06/2023, by
INCIBE (INCIBE)
Cover image LockerGoga: response and recovery actions
LockerGoga is  a ransomware-type malware, first discovered in 2019, that infects computer systems, encrypts your files, and demands a ransom in cryptocurrencies in order to recover them. Unlike others, LockerGoga focuses on attacking businesses and government organizations. This article describes what it is and explains the relevant methods to respond to this threat

Microcontrollers and their main protection measures

Posted on 25/05/2023, by
INCIBE (INCIBE)
Microcontrollers and their main protection measures
The physical protection of ports at hardware level within embedded systems allows control of the physical access interfaces, but what happens when these interfaces are necessary? Sometimes, access via JTAG or UART to systems is required for maintenance or modifications in different industrial processes. Thanks to these accesses, suppliers can access memory addresses to read or write, modify firmware, etc. Given the importance of these tasks, it is necessary to incorporate cybersecurity into the process and it is precisely on these measures that the subject of this article will focus.Protection against fault injections, encryption of some memory sections within microcontrollers, or simple write protection are some of the defences that can be implemented to avoid problems within an industrial infrastructure

Industrial control systems endpoints defence guide

Posted on 22/05/2023, by
INCIBE (INCIBE)
Cover image Industrial control systems endpoints defence guide
When talking about an endpoint device, we are talking about an end asset present at the network level. Among these devices we can find engineering stations (workstations), HMI, SCADA or PLC, among others. The evolution of industrial environments towards models in which these equipment are connected, both with corporate networks and remotely with suppliers, for maintenance purposes, exposes them to new threats. That is why industrial endpoints must be properly and individually protected and at multiple levels so that they cannot be compromised.   These end systems are key security hotspots because their vulnerabilities could affect other assets within the network.  

The vulnerability life cycle in an industrial environment

Posted on 18/05/2023, by
INCIBE (INCIBE)
The vulnerability life cycle in an industrial environment
A growing number of industrial companies are adopting vulnerability management on their devices and systems, in order to perform this management in a correct and efficient way, the first step is to create an asset inventory or update it. Some companies are looking for vulnerability management services to stay on top of the latest cybersecurity issues affecting their assets. In addition, we are also noticing an increase in the availability of tools and their implementation for vulnerability management.

Best practices in industrial network segmentation

Posted on 04/05/2023, by
INCIBE (INCIBE)
Decorative image network segmentation blog
The growth of cyberattacks suffered in the industrial world is very worrying, since it is a sector that until recently the vast majority of its devices were not connected to the Internet, so the implementation of cybersecurity had never been thought of.But with Industry 4.0 all that has changed, since almost all devices are interconnected or have Internet connection creating many advantages, but also some problem.That is why experts in this field have seen the need to improve and implement cybersecurity in the industry, for this they have created different models and applications. Some of these can be seen in the following article.

The power of the gateways in the IIoT

Posted on 27/04/2023, by
INCIBE (INCIBE)
gears with shadow of a walking man image
With the industrial revolution of Industry 4.0, industrial processes have become more intelligent, and this has led to the deployment of a greater number of devices. All these deployments usually have a common point, being the gateways, which, after being deployed, are responsible for the translation of some protocols to the TCP/UDP frame or simply send the information to the cloud.Being a point that gathers a large amount of data and capable of providing intelligence to industrial processes, industrial gateways have become a very desirable target for attackers.

Maintenance for new industry

Posted on 20/04/2023, by
INCIBE (INCIBE)
Two technician looking at a screen
One of the most important activities in the industry is the industrial maintenance because it could extend the service life of devices. This activity has always been more mechanically oriented, but currently it might talk a new type of maintenance because the new industry technologies and increase of cyberattacks.This maintenance is more related with the informatic world and in this article will be able to see the principals characteristics and the actions to be taken to ensure that it is carried out correctly.