Today, one of the most critical, but least known, procedures in industrial security is the secure development. This article gathers all the best practices for the creation of specific applications and equipment for industrial environments in a secure manner. Security aspects that must take into account both the work done during the design (confidentiality of the company and customers, workers' security...), and the security that the designed product itself must present throughout its life cycle (vulnerability management, access control, input/output management...).
The aim of this article is to address the good practices of secure development, from the perspective of industrial cybersecurity. Although traditional best practices can be applicable to these environments, the fundamental aspects of safety and availability generate different approaches, mainly in aspects related to memory and resource management, update and patch management cycles, etc.
This article aims to present a brief example guide for an implementation of the new standard in a supplier's facilities.
Going through the critical points of the standard, a generic use case will be followed to exemplify how a vehicle manufacturer can adapt its processes to comply with the new standard in an efficient and effective way.
By presenting an overview of the standard and production processes, the aim is to provide a brief guide to serve as a starting point and help avoid common failures in industrial environments when faced with new regulations, such as redundancy of effort, inefficiency in resource management and deficiencies in the application of safety measures.
In the era of interconnection and digitization, industrial control systems (ICS) are increasingly exposed to cyber threats. These systems are vital for energy production, manufacturing and critical infrastructure management, and their protection has become an essential priority.
Risk analysis is fundamental in this context, as it allows identifying, assessing and prioritizing the risks that can affect ICS. This process, ranges from technical vulnerabilities to emerging threats, and is crucial for developing effective mitigation and protection strategies.
In this article, the challenges and solutions related to risk analysis in ICS will be explored, as well as the importance of the IEC 62443-3-2 standard in this critical process.
The ability to monitor and analyze the behavior of users and entities becomes crucial for early detection and response to potential threats. UEBA solutions identify unusual or anomalous patterns in user behavior, enabling rapid identification of internal threats or external compromises. This post focuses on how UEBA analysis is becoming an essential tool for a cybersecurity strategy, from identifying suspicious behavior to preventing potential security breaches.
UMAS (Unified Messaging Application Services) is a Schneider Electric (SE) proprietary protocol used to configure and monitor Schneider Electric programmable logic controllers (PLCs). While it is true that the protocol is related to this manufacturer, the use of the protocol is quite widespread in different sectors, especially the energy sector, as is obvious.
The article will focus on the technical breakdown of the protocol and the use of the protocol. The article will also show weaknesses, strengths and some technical vulnerabilities detected in this protocol.
There are currently many standards and regulations in the industrial sector. A wide variety of them allow industrial organizations to check their level of maturity, such as IEC 62443, or to improve the security level of the organization through the application of a series of guidelines, good practices or guides, as in the case of the NIST Framework.
Given the growth of the industrial sector, and the increase in capabilities, both in production and connectivity, thanks to the consolidation of Industry 4.0 and the emergence of Industry 5.0, industrial environments are in the focus, not only of technological improvements, but also of cyber-attacks.
The application and implementation of the IEC 62443 family, in combination with the NIST Framework, will enable organizations to reduce, mitigate and control the possibility of suffering a cyber-attack by implementing the controls and best practices defined in both standards.
The UN R155 and UN R156 regulations are of vital importance for vehicle cybersecurity. From July 2022, all car manufacturers that want to be type-approved must comply with both regulations, but from July 2024 this requirement will be extended to all new vehicles sold in the European Union, regardless of when the manufacturer obtained type-approval. One of the most important aspects of compliance with both regulations is the completion of a cybersecurity risk assessment of the vehicle, including all integrated components of the vehicle's supply chain. On the other hand, it also specifies how to incorporate cybersecurity from design, how to detect and respond to incidents, how to securely update vehicle software, etc.
In the electricity sector, it has always been necessary to use robust communications that allow proper communication, since a failure in this sector would cause a large number of losses, both economic and social.
In addition, with the technological advances, it is important also to have secure communications since the electricity sector is one of the sectors that currently suffers the most cyber-attacks. For this reason, in recent years different robust and secure protocols have been created.
One of these protocols is DNP3, created mainly for the use of substation automation and control systems, for the electric utility industry, although it has now also been used for other sectors.
Finally, in this article we want to explain in more depth the operation of this protocol and the benefits or disadvantages of using this protocol.
The automotive world has always been one of the most cutting-edge sectors in terms of the technology used, which is why today's cars are equipped with technologies such as Bluetooth, NFC, GPS, etc., which improve different aspects such as comfort, fuel efficiency and increased safety.
But these implemented technologies can also bring with them serious problems, such as the risk of cyber-attacks that can affect passengers in the vehicle, both at the level of personal data and physical security.
For this reason, this article aims to provide an insight into some of the cyber-attacks that smart cars have suffered and how cyber-security is evolving and adapting to make more and more vehicles cyber-safe.
After the pandemic, it has been observed that the healthcare sector has been one of the most attacked by cybercrimilas and organizations. This has generated a significant impact on the affected organitations, making it essencial to protect this sector due to its strategic nature and to achieve this, it is neccesary to understand its characteristics and the threats that affect it.