Determining Risks from Advanced Multi-step Attacks to Critical Information Infrastructures

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) monitor and control industrial processes, and enable automation in industry facilities. Many of these facilities are regarded as Critical Infrastructures (CIs). Due to the increasing use of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) IT products and connectivity offerings, CIs have become an attractive target for cyberattacks. A successful attack could have significant consequences. An important step in securing Critical Information Infrastructures (CIIs) against cyber-attacks is risk analysis – understanding security risks, based on a systematic analysis of information on vulnerabilities, cyber threats, and the impacts related to the targeted system. Existing risk analysis approaches have various limitations, such as scalability and practicability problems. In contrast to previous work, we propose a practical and vulnerability-centric risk analysis approach for determining security risks associated with advanced, multi-step cyber-attacks. In order to examine multi-step attacks that exploit chains of vulnerabilities, we map vulnerabilities into preconditions and effects, and use rule-based reasoning for identifying advanced attacks and their path through a CII.