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Protecting industrial control systems from cyber attacks

Sept. 16, 2015

Defending your networks, platforms, control systems and industrial settings from cyber attacks is a tough job, but with the right tools an attack could be prevented.

In recent years hacking, phishing and cyber attacks have become a commonality. While online identity theft and email hacking affects individuals at the personal and financial level, a recent trend of cyber attacks on industrial environments like nuclear and electrical plants can cost millions, affect thousands of people, and potentially claim lives.

Industrial and automation facilities must secure their networks and industrial control systems (ICS) to minimize their vulnerabilities to hackers and prevent costly shutdowns. Here you'll find an array of Control articles that can help you better prepare your plant and industrial settings to fight cyber attacks.

Cybersecurity: Control systems are under attack

Defining the 21st-century cybersecurity protection platform for ICS

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Cyber attacks pose a potential threat to process control systems and their associated safety systems. The solution is to recognize that there is a potential threat and to perform a cyber risk assessment to identify existing vulnerabilities, risks and security gaps. Read more.

Could cyber terrorists attack your company?

When cyber-related events cause outages and plant shutdowns—whether they were caused by accident, employee, hacker or terrorist—the first question should be, "What made our system unstable and susceptible, and what can we do to prevent it from happening again"? Read more.

Preventing, responding to and recovering from cyber attacks

When it comes to cybersecurity you might as well enlist the help of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and here's why. Many industry professionals think cybersecurity is all about technology, but Gregory Touhill with DHS says cybersecurity it's a risk-management issue. Do you know how much your information is worth?

Practical methods for protecting industrial networks

Process control engineers often had to worry more about accidental security breaches typically resulting from non-malicious, well-meaning mistakes by internal users. This situation has changed, mostly because its much easier now for even inexperienced hackers to use widely disseminated software to launch many potentially destructive attacks on vulnerable network. Read more.

Cyber security for the electric sector

This article addresses the compliance cost of NERC attack prevention standards in the electric power distribution industry and just how little work gets done in a typical plant when the network is down. Read more.