Identifying and Scoring Vulnerability in SCADA Environments

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems form a critical component to industries such as national power grids, manufacturing automation, nuclear power production and more. By interacting with control machines and providing real-time support to monitor, gather, and record data, SCADA systems show major impact in industrial environments. Along with the uncountable benefits of SCADA systems, inconceivable risks have raised. Moreover, SCADA operators, production staff and sometimes systems experts have no or little knowledge when applying security due diligence. In this paper, we systematically review SCADA security based on different aspects (i.e. SCADA components, vulnerability, severity, impact, etc.). Our goal is to provide an all-inclusive reference for future SCADA users and researchers. We also use a time-based heuristic approach to evaluate vulnerabilities and show the importance of the evaluation. We aim to establish a fundamental level of security due diligence to ensure SCADA risks are wellcomprehended and managed. Keywords—Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) security; critical infrastructure security; SCADA; risk assessment; vulnerability scoring

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