Pre-Conference Seminar

Addressing the overall state of cyber security today and the priorities that utilities should focus on in order to adequately secure their SCADA systems

30 November 2010
9.00am to 12.30pm

Workshop leader:
Mr. Shoaib Yousuf, E-Security Strategy Manager,
Country Energy, Australia

Introduction:

Control systems were initially built from relatively simple electric and mechanical devices. A typical control room would have hundreds of buttons, dials, levers and gauges in every form, shape and colour. The control system as a whole was dedicated solely for the control purposes and therefore was stand-alone in nature.

The changes in the past 20 years in the SCADA security environment have caused general-purpose IT frameworks and connectivity to “infiltrate” to the control systems zone, which traditionally was not designed with data security in mind. The overall effect is that systems that were previously considered as an unknown “black box” isolated from the outside world, are now accessible and relying on technologies that every computer programmer or administrator is familiar with.

The ease and discreteness of access to the Smart Grid nodes, along with the traditional lack of security state of affairs common in control/SCADA systems field protocols is a dangerous mix. Two of the SCADA attack vectors, Field to Field and Field to Control Centre, become easily exploitable – all one has to do to attack is become a customer of the utility.

This workshop is especially useful for utilities which are planning or in the process of upgrading their core SCADA/DA/DMS functionalities to deal fully with challenges of smart grid including security issues.

By attending this workshop you will:

• Learn of the security challenges in SCADA environment today
• Demonstration of the need to secure the utilities’ existing SCADA environment and Smart Grid will be highlighted
• Be aware of the critical attack vectors and vulnerabilities relevant to Smart Grid deployments
• Raise the security awareness regarding the new threats introduced by implementing a Smart Grid and introducing with SCADA
• Encourage a discussion about potential remedies to mitigate these vulnerabilities
• Discover the key role SCADA will play in the future success of Smart Grids
• Gain insights on how utilities in Australia have upgraded their existing systems to become smarter
• Gain insights on how to upgrade core SCADA/DA/DMS functionalities to deal fully with challenges of smart grid including security issues.

Workshop leader:

Mr. Shoaib Yousuf, E-Security Strategy Manager, Country Energy, Australia
Shoaib has a Bachelor in Computer Science and a Masters of Information Systems Security (Charles Sturt). He is currently undertaking an MBA (Computing). He is also CISSP, CISA, C|EH, MCTS, Comptia Security+, CCNP, MCSE, MCSA, and MCP. Shoaib has worked as a Security Engineer for IBM, a Security Analyst for Westpac, and a Security Analyst for Citibank and HSBC. He is currently E-Security Strategy Manager for Country Energy.