Software Vulnerability Design and Approaches for Securing SCADA Control Systems

Despite growing awareness of security issues especially in SCADA networks, there exist little or scarce information about SCADA vulnerabilities and attacks. Where security has been a consideration, there has been no clear methodology to assess the security impacts brought about by attacks. Worst, there have been no or very little security tools that have been released publicly. This research aims to addresses the issues regarding security and vulnerability testing. Software program was created to simulate the vulnerability testing and carry out assessment methodologies to test existing SCADA software design and implementation. This paper also describes the application of a well know security testing approach known as the software implemented fault injection as well as building the model for security vulnerabilities identification and analysis. Impact analysis was also performed to provide a better understanding of the attacks. Sufficient security measures are needed to block all possible intrusion points into the SCADA system to significantly reduce the chances of a successful attack.