From: SourceSecurity.com
The Bipartisan Policy Center, the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team, which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, reports responding to 198 cyber incidents in fiscal year 2012 across all critical infrastructure sectors. Forty-one percent of these incidents involved the energy sector, particularly electricity, according to a February 2014 report. Considering the enormity of the system, it soon becomes clear that 198 events is the very tip of an enormous iceberg.
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“SCADA monitors devices on the grid many times per second and was never intended or designed to have virus protection or security protocols,” says Dave Hunt, an independent homeland security consultant and a founding member of the National InfraGard
Electromagnetic Pulse special interest group. In fact, continuous monitoring makes it virtually impossible for a SCADA system to validate a security protocol. Adding to the misery is that an evildoer can purchase a SCADA attack for about $500, not to mention that the systems were designed by engineers, not computer people, so they don’t necessarily communicate well.
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