Blog

The physical protection of ports at hardware level within embedded systems allows control of the physical access interfaces, but what happens when these interfaces are necessary? Sometimes, access via JTAG or UART to systems is required for maintenance or modifications in different industrial processes. Thanks to these accesses, suppliers can access memory addresses to read or write, modify firmware, etc. Given the importance of these tasks, it is necessary to incorporate cybersecurity into the process and it is precisely on these measures that the subject of this article will focus.Protection against fault injections, encryption of some memory sections within microcontrollers, or simple write protection are some of the defences that can be implemented to avoid problems within an industrial infrastructure

When talking about an endpoint device, we are talking about an end asset present at the network level. Among these devices we can find engineering stations (workstations), HMI, SCADA or PLC, among others. The evolution of industrial environments towards models in which these equipment are connected, both with corporate networks and remotely with suppliers, for maintenance purposes, exposes them to new threats. That is why industrial endpoints must be properly and individually protected and at multiple levels so that they cannot be compromised.   These end systems are key security hotspots because their vulnerabilities could affect other assets within the network.  

A growing number of industrial companies are adopting vulnerability management on their devices and systems, in order to perform this management in a correct and efficient way, the first step is to create an asset inventory or update it. Some companies are looking for vulnerability management services to stay on top of the latest cybersecurity issues affecting their assets. In addition, we are also noticing an increase in the availability of tools and their implementation for vulnerability management.

En este artículo se presentarán algunas soluciones útiles en la realización de test de vulnerabilidades en aplicaciones Android, resaltando las oportunidades que estas tareas aportan a la ciberseguridad.

The growth of cyberattacks suffered in the industrial world is very worrying, since it is a sector that until recently the vast majority of its devices were not connected to the Internet, so the implementation of cybersecurity had never been thought of.But with Industry 4.0 all that has changed, since almost all devices are interconnected or have Internet connection creating many advantages, but also some problem.That is why experts in this field have seen the need to improve and implement cybersecurity in the industry, for this they have created different models and applications. Some of these can be seen in the following article.

With the industrial revolution of Industry 4.0, industrial processes have become more intelligent, and this has led to the deployment of a greater number of devices. All these deployments usually have a common point, being the gateways, which, after being deployed, are responsible for the translation of some protocols to the TCP/UDP frame or simply send the information to the cloud.Being a point that gathers a large amount of data and capable of providing intelligence to industrial processes, industrial gateways have become a very desirable target for attackers.

One of the most important activities in the industry is the industrial maintenance because it could extend the service life of devices. This activity has always been more mechanically oriented, but currently it might talk a new type of maintenance because the new industry technologies and increase of cyberattacks.This maintenance is more related with the informatic world and in this article will be able to see the principals characteristics and the actions to be taken to ensure that it is carried out correctly.

Technical reporting is one of the most important parts of the completion of a task, as it reflects the results of all the work done. Moreover, it does not only constitute a final deliverable for a customer, or for the decision-makers within an organization, but also acts as the link between the person or team that has carried out the task and the decision-makers, based on the findings.

Currently, there is a constant evolution in the technologies and implementations made in Industrial Control Systems. On one hand, some of the most common implementations for the improvement of industrial systems infrastructures are digitalization and the use of cloud technology. On the other hand, the increase in communication protocols and IIoT devices (due to the growth of the Industry 4.0) generates a large volume of traffic that is difficult to control and secure.