Within the industrial world, there are some sectors such as robotics, which has evolver considerably. This has led to the need to update all the regulations and standards, both in terms of physical (safety) and cybersecurity. (security). Given that the robotics sector is and will increasingly become a highly technical sector with exponential growth, the need to update all documentation has been promoted by a large group of companies in the sector, which, above all, have focused their concerns on the cybersecurity of the industrial robotics world.
Industrial Control Systems (ICS) were initially designed to work in sealed environments and as stand-alone systems, interconnections between systems were scarce, as were safety protections. The constant evolutions in the field of ICS, including the inclusion of a large number of communication protocols, IIoT devices, the expansion of interconnections, an incessant search for interoperability between systems and the inclusion of these architectures in critical systems, has meant that the networks on which these industrial control systems, has meant that the networks on which these industrial control systems are built, also known as control networks, have increased their security exponentially.
In industrial environments there are a multitude of technologies, manufacturers, communications, etc. This article will reflect a small part of the protocols that use radio frequency (RF) communications. Thanks to these wireless communications, operators in the industrial world can send a simple order to obtain information on the status of a sensor or execute control orders in the industrial environment. The importance of a good implementation, in terms of cybersecurity of these communications, is quite high since, on occasions, some of the attacks that have been investigated have an impact on the physical world, giving rise to incidents that can even result in fatalities.
The proliferation of cybersecurity incidents in industrial environments has given rise to a huge concern in the various existing sectors. Some of them, such us the energy sector, are choosing the path taking in the banking sector with the TIBER-EU framework. In addition, many governments are allocating large sums of money to their government agencies to develop strategic plans in which that exercises are included
Confrontations between countries no longer only take place in the physical world, in this new decade, these confrontations also move to the cyber world. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is one of the clearest examples. Among the events that have taken place is the security incident known as Industroyer2, which affected an electrical supplier in Ukraine. The Industroyer2 is the evolution of its predecessor, the malware known as Industroyer, which was able to affect multiple protocols of industrial control systems during its execution. This new variant of the malware focuses on a particular communications protocol, IEC-104, which is widely used in Europe and the Middle East to monitor and control the power system via the TCP/IP communications protocol.
The programming of PLCs is a fundamental part of the initial phases when building and designing industrial plants. About that environment, the company will base all its operations in that environment making the configuration of these controllers a critical element. When it comes to programming these devices there are a series of steps and best practices that take advantage of the native functionalities available and that involve little or no need to resort to a PLC programmer, protecting the device in a simple way with minimum spend on resource.
Antivirus is one of the main lines of defence when a user downloads a malicious file or an attacker has gained access to the computer and attempts to execute malware. Cybercriminals use various means to avoid an antivirus, using different tools and techniques depending on their type and functionalities. This article details the techniques commonly used, as well as the protective measures we should take to prevent attackers from executing malware on our computers.
PLCs, or Programmable Logic Controllers, have been part of industrial environments since the birth of automation. Given their evolution over time, thanks to greater intelligence, they have become a target of interest for potential attackers.
Organisations are exposed to the consequences of cyber threats, and may be ill-prepared to face and manage cyber incidents, whether provoked or unprovoked. For this reason, in 2014 INCIBE launched its Indicators for the Improvement of Cyber Resilience (IMC) model, with the aim of improving and understanding the state of cyber resilience in organisations.
Demilitarized zones, also known as DMZs (demilitarized zones), are used for the secure exchange of information between computers on a network that we want to protect and an external network that needs to access those computers. DMZs are widely used in the IT sector and also in the OT sector, but the equipment and services they host are not exactly the same.