Computer Security: Protect your plant: a "serious game" about control system cyber-security
Control system cyber-security is attracting increasing attention: from cybercriminals, from the media and from security researchers.
After the legendary “Stuxnet” attacks of 2010 against an Iranian uranium enrichment plant, the infiltration of Saudi Aramco in 2012, and most recently the hacking of German blast furnaces, we should be prepared. Just imagine what would happen if hackers turned off the lights in Geneva and the Pays-de-Gex for a month? (“Hacking control systems, switching lights off!"). Or if attackers infiltrated CERN’s accelerator or experiment control systems and stopped us from pursuing our core business: delivering beams and recording particle collisions (“Hacking control systems, switching... accelerators off?").
Now you can test your ability to protect an industrial plant against cyber-threats! The Computer Security Team, in collaboration with Kaspersky Lab, is organising a so-called “serious game”. This game is targeted at control and safety system experts, IT people and line managers, and should increase their awareness of the risks and security problems of running modern control systems. Basically, each of the competing teams of 4-6 people is tasked with running a water purification plant in the most efficient way. This plant consists of two independent filtration lines controlled by PLCs, HMIs, engineering stations and a data historian. During the five rounds of the game, these two filtration lines generate revenues. However, the teams also have to face cyber-attacks potentially impacting plant performance. In order to defend their plant, each team has to take strategic, managerial and technical decisions while taking operational constraints into account and maintaining a high level of revenue.
Of course this game simplifies many aspects of running complex control systems. Still, having played the game, you should have a better understanding of:
- why fundamental cyber-security awareness is beneficial for fulfilling CERN’s mission,
- why we need the technical/experiment networks to be properly separated from the CERN office network,
- why protecting PLCs and other embedded devices is a must,
- why regular changes of passwords, in particular those used for service accounts, are essential,
- why keeping control PCs up-to-date is important, and
- what the benefits of anti-virus software are (among others).
And of course it is quite fun to play in an informal competition with others: the team having earned the most revenue and having best secured their plant wins a prize!
This game has been developed by Kaspersky Labs, a renowned security company, and will be presented by them in an interactive fashion using a board simulating the plant (see image below) as well as iPads for news announcements and for book-keeping revenues and expenses (find a teaser commercial here). It will be hosted in the CERN “Pump Hall” (Building 216) and is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, 3 February 2015, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. This is a unique opportunity! Register here. As places are limited, control and safety system experts, technicians and engineers will be given priority.
Image credit: Kaspersky
For further information, questions or help, check our website or contact us at Computer.Security@cern.ch.
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by Stefan Lueders, Computer Security Team
