http://www.controleng.com/blog/590000659/post/420036442.html



By Matt Luallen and Steve Hamburg of Encari

November 12, 2008



Well, I (Steve here) finally succumbed to my temptation and saw the 

blockbuster hit Eagle Eye. (http://www.eagleeyemovie.com/ and 

http://www.fandango.com/eagleeye_110111/movieoverview). I’ll do my best 

not to ruin this movie in the event that you have not yet seen it while 

trying to make the key point of this blog.



Eagle Eye is based on the premise that someone, well in actuality, 

something (okay, I’ll stop with the hints) has extensively hacked into 

the power grid. While watching the movie, you’ll witness remote control 

of public transportation systems, cranes, demolition equipment, 

electricity transmission lines, etc. While the extent of exposure 

conveyed in the movie is quite far fetched, it does bring up a very 

important consideration: What are you doing in regards to your event 

monitoring operations?



In Eagle Eye, several severe breaches transpired before any one involved 

in several of our critical infrastructures became aware that such 

breaches had occurred. Further, a considerable amount of time following 

the point at which the breaches became known elapsed before the root 

cause of the breaches was identified. Pursuant to my previous 

consideration, it is critical to understand the implications associated 

with SCADA and process control systems security.



Unlike several professions, many aspects of critical infrastructure 

operations and other business operations involving SCADA and process 

control systems can be life threatening if a security breach occurs. For 

example, what could happen to a patient receiving radiation therapy from 

a device that is accessible from within a hospital’s wireless network? 

What could happen to passengers in a subway if the operations of the 

rail system were somehow overtaken by malicious parties? Similar 

questions are numerous.



[...]





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Received on Fri Nov 14 2008 - 03:50:59 PST