Security implications of embedded and specialized systems

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) & Industrial Control System (ICS)

• SCADA is an Industrial Control System (ICS) designed to manage various operations on a plant.

• Within an industrial plant, there are many components or devices that are used to manage the operations of power generation, manufacturing and other industrial processes.

• SCADA is usually deployed as a distributed system to control all industrial equipment and devices, providing system control.

• Such type of system such always be isolated from the Internet.

  • Facilities

  • Industrial

  • Manufacturing

  • Energy

  • Logistics

Internet of Things (IoT)

• Some IoT devices are gathering information about you such as wearable technologies.

• IoT devices may include: watches, health and fitness monitors, household appliances and even home security systems

• If an attacker is able to access the information, the attacker can know your personal activities and even access your premises.

• Sensors

• Smart devices

• Wearables

• Facility automation

• Weak defaults

Embedded systems

• Raspberry Pi

• Field-programmable gate array (FPGA)

• Arduino

• System on chip (SoC)

Specialized

• Medical systems

• Vehicles

• Aircraft

• Smart meters

Voice over IP (VoIP)

Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC)

• HVAC systems are usually implemented within a Data Center to ensure devices are kept cool at all times.

• HVAC system can be integrated into fire suppression system.

• A computer is used to manage the HVAC system within an organization, this system should always be secured at all times to prevent any threat actors from compromising it.

System on a Chip (SoC)

• A System on a Chip (SoC) is typically a single chip with many embedded components.

• An example of an SoC is a Raspberry Pi.

• SoC is a type of embedded system as the firmware is not readily accessible by the user.

• Since all components are integrated onto a single chip, it's difficult to replace or upgrade any component.

Drones

Multifunction printer (MFP)

• This is a device with multiple functions all in one device.

• Example is an All-in-one printer which the features to print, scan and fax.

• MFD has firmware which allows the user to execute functions.

• MFD also contains memory to store images and documents locally.

• If an attacker is able to access the MFD, a lot confidential data will be exposed.

Real-time operating system (RTOS)

• This is an operating system designed to ensure there is no delay or wait time for other processes to execute on the system.

• RTOS are used within industrial and manufacturing environments.

• An RTOS always need to be available to ensure an industrial process is always executing on time.

Surveillance systems

Communication considerations

• 5G - faster than 4G

• Narrow-band - low powered and low cost

• Baseband radio

• Subscriber identity module (SIM) cards

• Zigbee

Constraints

• Power

• Compute

• Network

• Crypto

• Inability to patch

• Authentication

• Range

• Cost

• Implied trust