Critical Infrastructure Cyber Security (SCADA)

Day 1: Critical Infrastructure (CI)

This session starts with a comprehensive overview of critical infrastructure sectors. Students will gain an understanding of the current threat landscape and be provided with real-world examples of cyber attacks to study and analyse.

Topics

CI in the Economy, Phishing, SQL Injection, Cross-Site Scripting, Malware Attacks, DoS, DDoS.

Day 2: Control Systems

This session covers the history of control systems, where they are found and how they work. We’ll also look at the hardware used in these systems and give an overview of the types of common configurations.

Topics

Control system implementations, Industrialised hardware, Open-loop Control, Closed-loop Control.

Day 3: Components of an Industrial Control System (ICS)

This session starts with an overview of ICS Hardware. We’ll look at Unintelligent Field Devices, Intelligence Electronic Devices and Distributed Control Systems. Students will become familiar with the roles and limitations of various components.

Topics

Limit Switches, Sensors, Robotics, Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), IP Addresses, Binary Coded Decimal, Pulse Width Modulation.

Day 4: Cyber Security Fundamentals

This session provides an overview of cyber threats and attacks. The various stages of cyber attacks will be covered, along with common ICS security vulnerabilities. Students will gain an understanding of cyber security in an Industrial Control System setting.

Topics

Threat Actors and Agents, Threat targets, Attack Vectors, Asymmetric Warfare, Cyber Resiliency.

Day 5: Protection of CI and ICS Forensics

This session consists of a Red team vs Blue team exercise utilising actual industrial control equipment and the cyber range. Students will gain experience attacking and defending physical real-world type infrastructure scale models that includes traffic management, water supply and electrical supply systems.

Topics

Red teaming, Blue teaming, Cyber physical systems, Cyber offence, Cyber defence, SCADA.

Critical Infrastructure Control System Security – Course outline PDF.