Cali Valdivieso
2 April 2025
CYSE 200T
In the 21st century, humans heavily rely on power plants, water plants, gas pipelines, etc. to survive. The infrastructure to run these systems needs the utmost security possible. If these infrastructures were to be hacked, many citizens would be left in the dark without necessary needs. Kumar et al. (2010) explain “SCADA systems are used to monitor and control a plant or equipment in industries such as telecommunications, water and waste control, energy”(P. 1). The SCADA system records data that is occurring for its assignment and reports it if an alarm has gone off and needs to be adjusted. The alarms are monitored through the system by setpoints established to keep the plant neutral and not at risk. While the SCADA system gives operators the ease of making changes, it still has the possibility of failing or being overridden. The SCADA system “Provides a host control function for the supervisor to control and define settings” (Kumar et al., 2010, p. 2). SCADA systems are believed to be safe because they do not run directly on the internet. One vulnerability that could lead to catastrophe is systems being run from a remote location. By not being on-site at the plant, operators are running the risk of not having the correct connection to make changes to the systems. Also, as technology and cyber attackers advance in their practice, new ways to get around the established firewalls will develop. If viruses or unauthorized access were able to get into the system, terrible things could happen. Companies are currently trying to create better defense walls to deter from any issues occurring. The creation of stronger firewalls and industrial VPNs are in the works. With these added protections, these plants that use SCADA should be.