Forensic Attacks Analysis and the Cyber Security of Safety-Critical Industrial Control Systems

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) applications monitor and control a wide range of safety-related functions. These include energy generation where failures could have significant, irreversible consequences. They also include the control systems that are used in the manufacture of safety-related products. In this case bugs in an ICS/SCADA system could introduce flaws in the production of components that remain undetected before being incorporated into safety-related applications. Industrial Control Systems, typically, use devices and networks that are very different from conventional IP-based infrastructures. These differences prevent the re-use of existing cyber-security products in ICS/SCADA environments; the architectures, file formats and process structures are very different. This paper supports the forensic analysis of industrial control systems in safety-related applications. In particular, we describe how forensic attack analysis is used to identify weaknesses in devices so that we can both protect components but also determine the information that must be analyzed during the aftermath of a cyber-incident. Simulated attacks detect vulnerabilities; a risk-based approach can then be used to assess the likelihood and impact of any breach. These risk assessments are then used to justify both immediate and longer-term countermeasures

Retirees Look Back on the Years

Professors Howard Leichter, Linda Olds and Kareen Sturgeon share memories of their years at Linfield

Modelling the demographic impact of HIV/AIDS in South Africa and the likely impact of interventions

This paper describes an approach to incorporating the impact of HIV/AIDS and the effects of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programmes into a cohort component projection model of the South African population. The modelled HIV-positive population is divided into clinical and treatment stages, and it is demonstrated that the age profile and morbidity profile of the HIV-positive population is changing significantly over time. HIV/AIDS is projected to have a substantial demographic impact in South Africa. Prevention programmes - social marketing, voluntary counselling and testing, prevention of mother-to-child transmission and improved treatment for sexually transmitted diseases - are unlikely to reduce AIDS mortality significantly in the short term. However, more immediate reductions in mortality can be achieved when antiretroviral treatment is introduced.antiretroviral treatment, demographic impact, HIV/AIDS prevention, simulation model, South Africa

Adoption of open access is rising - but so too are its costs

Options available to authors to make their work open access are on the rise. Adoption of open access itself is also rising, and usage of open-access materials is similarly increasing. However, alongside rising access levels another, less positive rise can also be observed: the costs of open access are increasing and at a rate considerably above inflation. Stephen Pinfield and Rob Johnson outline some of the key findings of the recent Monitoring the Transition to Open Access report, offer their own personal reflection on some of the policy challenges it presents, and suggest some possible ways forward for policymakers looking to control costs without dampening growth of OA

Tree homology and a conjecture of Levine

In his study of the group of homology cylinders, J. Levine made the conjecture that a certain homomorphism eta': T -> D' is an isomorphism. Here T is an abelian group on labeled oriented trees, and D' is the kernel of a bracketing map on a quasi-Lie algebra. Both T and D' have strong connections to a variety of topological settings, including the mapping class group, homology cylinders, finite type invariants, Whitney tower intersection theory, and the homology of the group of automorphisms of the free group. In this paper, we confirm Levine's conjecture. This is a central step in classifying the structure of links up to grope and Whitney tower concordance, as explained in other papers of this series. We also confirm and improve upon Levine's conjectured relation between two filtrations of the group of homology cylinders

Defending Against Firmware Cyber Attacks on Safety-Critical Systems

In the past, it was not possible to update the underlying software in many industrial control devices. Engineering teams had to ‘rip and replace’ obsolete components. However, the ability to make firmware updates has provided significant benefits to the companies who use Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), switches, gateways and bridges as well as an array of smart sensor/actuators. These updates include security patches when vulnerabilities are identified in existing devices; they can be distributed by physical media but are increasingly downloaded over Internet connections. These mechanisms pose a growing threat to the cyber security of safety-critical applications, which are illustrated by recent attacks on safety-related infrastructures across the Ukraine. Subsequent sections explain how malware can be distributed within firmware updates. Even when attackers cannot reverse engineer the code necessary to disguise their attack, they can undermine a device by forcing it into a constant upload cycle where the firmware installation never terminates. In this paper, we present means of mitigating the risks of firmware attack on safety-critical systems as part of wider initiatives to secure national critical infrastructures. Technical solutions, including firmware hashing, must be augmented by organizational measures to secure the supply chain within individual plants, across companies and throughout safety-related industries