Assessing and Improving SCADA Security in the Dutch Drinking Water Sector

  • Authors:
  • Eric Luiijf;Manou Ali;Annemarie Zielstra

  • Affiliations:
  • TNO Defence, Security and Safety, The Hague, The Netherlands 2597;ICTU programme National Infrastructure against Cyber Crime (NICC), The Hague, The Netherlands 2595;ICTU programme National Infrastructure against Cyber Crime (NICC), The Hague, The Netherlands 2595

  • Venue:
  • Critical Information Infrastructure Security
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

International studies have shown that information security for process control systems, in particular SCADA, is weak. As many critical infrastructure (CI) services depend on process control systems, any vulnerability in the protection of process control systems in CI may result in serious consequences for citizens and society. In order to understand their strengths and weaknesses, the drinking water sector in The Netherlands benchmarked the information security of their process control environments. Large differences in their security postures were found. Good Practices for SCADA security were developed based upon the study results. This paper will discuss the simple but effective approach taken to perform the benchmark, the way the results were reported to the drinking water companies, and the way in which the SCADA security good practices were developed. Figures shown in this paper are based on artificially constructed data since the study data contain company and national sensitive information.