Critical Infrastructure Cyber Security (SCADA)

Australia’s Critical Infrastructure (CI) is diverse, complex and inter-dependant, and relies on distributed networks that run everything from electricity power plants to gas pipelines and hospitals to highways. Nowadays our infrastructure is more physically and digitally interconnected than ever before and thus faces a variety of risks to its security and ability to function. As these risks include manmade acts of terror and cyber-attacks, Critical Infrastructure security is the backbone of our national security and economic prosperity.

Infrastructure operations are increasingly reliant on automated Industrial Control Systems (ICS) which incorporate such devices as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, programmable logic controllers (PLC’s), human machine interfaces (HMI’s), remote telemetry units (RTU’s) and distributed control systems (DCS’s). While these systems had their beginnings without the benefits of open connectivity to other systems, the incorporation and benefits of such connectivity is increasingly utilised. With this though, comes the increased possibility of the unauthorised or unintended use or damage to the very systems we depend upon in our everyday lives.

This course covers and provides practical experience with the complexity of modern information technology equipment and the components in control systems and legacy systems, the threat environment, and attackers’ capabilities as well as techniques for securing these systems.

Course Details

This onsite professional development course offers technical, architectural, and managerial solutions to the problem of protecting industrial infrastructure. It is designed to accommodate the broad spectrum of backgrounds and potential abilities for a Company's Engineering, IT and Technical Management team members. To do this we will be running concurrent streams where you will be able to select between hands on labs that are either centred around the control system or IT hardware and software.

This course combines presentations, group discussions and a high proportion of guided hands-on labs. These labs will enable you to gain hands on experience through with a series of VM-based machines using both real hardware and digital twin technologies. Towards the end there will be a Red\Blue exercise using real hardware and software controlling the infrastructure on our training table. The final half day is the chance to take the gained knowledge and implement it in protecting this training table infrastructure. We will all finally test the effectiveness by the final Red Insider exercise where everyone tries to become the disgruntled employee wanting to take down the infrastructure.

If you had not had direct experience with the hardware and software of an industrial plant it is advised that you select labs designed to provide an understanding of these system. The alternative steam is intended to provide those that do not typically get involved with IT systems the opportunity to learn more about configuring them. If you typically do not get involved with either of these, we would generally advise you to select the industrial plant stream given that is the primary focus of this course.

There are many combined sections of the course in which we will be working together on the same exercise.

It is noted that the maximum number of attendees to this course is restricted by hardware and licensing constraints. Although you can select the labs that are of interest to you, numbers are limited depending on the practical and your selections will be allocated on a first in approach.