Communication network dependencies for ICS/SCADA systems

The use of long-range communication networks, and specially the Internet, has revolutionised ICS/SCADA systems and architectures. The use of network communication in these systems has proven to be an effective way of gaining a means for remotely operating and maintaining these infrastructures in real-time. Therefore, they have become vital assets that provide a functionality otherwise impossible. However, this also opens up the way for new threat vectors that can potentially compromise the efficient and secure operation of these systems. These threats are not necessarily new; many are inherited from the use of networking technologies (in use in IT areas for a long time now), which leads to the fact that there are already countermeasures available to mitigate or even eliminate them. For this reason, ENISA is continuing the work on communication network dependencies in industrial infrastructures, focusing in this case on ICS/SCADA systems and networks. The main objective is to provide insight into the communication network interdependencies currently present in industrial infrastructures and environments, mapping critical assets, assessing possible attacks and identifying potential good practices and security measures to apply. In order to properly map the critical assets in these network infrastructures, the layers from ISA95 have been given as a guideline. The main reason to choose it (as opposed to other alternatives such as ISA99) is the fact that it focuses mainly on the network connection between the different assets in play in the network, providing a perfect means for identifying and classifying them.