Securing Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems: Factors and Research Direction

SCADA systems before their current generation were seen as mostly centralized and isolated monolithic structures that relied on proprietary network, hardware and communication protocol and were thus were considered insulated from cyber-attacks. However, with the recent advancement in network and communication technologies SCADA systems are now connected to corporate intranet and the internet. While this change has increased the ease of management and integration, it has also exposed SCADA systems to a myriad of cyber vulnerabilities. This research examined key factors that support secure assessment and operation of SCADA systems, the methods and techniques used to implement best practices and security controls within these systems, and finally it identified areas of currently ongoing and future research within this field.