Securing IC Design
SECURING IC DESIGN OVERVIEW The old way of delivering a product to market was to reuse as much IP as possible and verify that the
CYBER CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
OVERVIEW
As governments and national authorities come to grips with cyber warfare, attention has turned to critical infrastructure; so-called because a successful attack on such a system can cause great disruption possibly leading to loss of life. Amongst critical infrastructure are energy plants, emergency networks and financial networks. It is the nuclear branch of the energy sector that creates the most concern. Built decades ago when cyber attacks were virtually unheard of, the majority of energy plants whether nuclear or not, have been designed more towards operability than cyber security. Unfortunately, this includes the use of default settings and passwords for hard to get to equipment.
POWER PLANT VULNERABILITIES
When nuclear plants were originally designed, they had to meet a number of strict health and safety criteria to protect the environment and the communities they serve. As with all plant types, electronics controlled a vast array of subsystems. Unlike most plants, a breakdown in a sub system such as the lowly HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) can cause a national disaster. In a nuclear power plant the HVAC has a dual purpose; the maintenance of the environment of the main control room for personnel and more importantly the prevention of the build-up of explosive atmospheres in highly sensitive areas. It should be clear that hacking even the lowly HVAC system can have dire consequences.
The electronics controlling subsystems in a nuclear plant are usually interconnected through an I&C (instrumentation and control) system such as the Siemens Teleperm XS which was favoured by a number of energy providers. Internal (sub systems connected directly to the Teleperm) communicated using the Profibus field bus protocol whilst external systems used the Profinet protocol. Neither of these protocols use encryption and the contents of packets over the networks are visible in a tool such as Wireshark. There are also tools such as Ettercap which allow handcrafted communication packets to be created and potentially inserted into the data streams.
Risks To ICS Infrastructure
Attacking Embedded Hardware
ATTACKING EMBEDDED HARDWARE OVERVIEW Embedded devices can be attacked in numerous ways to leak privileged information. These attacks focus on vulnerabilities in the implementation of
Cyber Security In Cars
Its now common to see electronics in cars controlling all aspects of driving; door entry, steering, braking and safety equipment such as onboard cameras and
Cyber Physical Security
CYBER CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE OVERVIEW As governments and national authorities come to grips with cyber warfare, attention has turned to critical infrastructure; so-called because a successful
Automotive Security
AUTOMOTIVE SECURITY OVERVIEW The automotive industry has seen a dramatic increase in security measures uptake as manufacturers come to terms with the implications of having
Attacking Hardware
Embedded devices can be attacked in numerous ways to leak privileged information. These attacks focus on vulnerabilities in the implementation of secure functions or in