Cybersecurity Pros Signal Regulatory Challenge for Securing Industrial Control Systems

imaginima/Getty Images

A studious adversary may be hellbent on destruction, and a comprehensive approach is needed to successfully govern the protection of critical infrastructure, specialists say.

The discovery of a malware tool targeting the operational technology in critical infrastructure like power plants and water treatment facilities is highlighting issues policymakers are grappling with in efforts to establish a regulatory regime for cybersecurity.

The tool enables the adversary to move laterally across industrial control system environments by effectively targeting their crucial programmable logic controllers.

“There are only a few places that can build something like this,” said Bryson Bort, CEO and Founder of cybersecurity firm Scythe. “This is not the kind of thing that the script kiddie—the amateur—can all of a sudden, gin up and be like, 'look, I'm doing things against PLCs.' These are very complicated machines.”

Bort and other fellows of the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative hosted a webinar Friday on the new tool, which is built to commoditize cyberattacks on industrial control systems with a modular design that would make it more accessible to less skilled adversaries as well.  

“These are not protocols you can just go up, and, like, do against, like [web application penetration testing,]” Bort said. “So the complexity of this cannot be [overstated], the comprehensive nature of this particular malware cannot be [overstated]. This thing, I think calling it a shopping mall doesn't quite capture it right. This was Mall of America. This thing had almost everything in it and the ability to add even more.”

Bort said the design of the tool suggests a switch in the mindset of the adversary—likely the Kremlin in the estimation of cyber intelligence analysts, although U.S. officials have not attributed the tool’s origin.

He connected the tool’s emergence to “what we're seeing here in phase three on the ground in the Ukraine, which is the Russians seem to be going almost with a scorched earth approach. They are killing civilians, they are destroying the infrastructure. And that's a complete, almost, 180 from what we saw within the first few days of the war where it looked like … they thought they were gonna kind of stroll into the country, take everything. And you don't want to destroy what you're about to take. And now it seems to be just to cause destruction.”

In response to a question about the role of global vendors to the industrial control systems community, and potentially limiting their production to trustworthy partner nations, Bort argued, if there is a need for regulations, the focus should be on the owners and operators of the critical infrastructure.

“This isn't a vendor problem,” he said. “This is about ICS asset owners, and asset owners are working closely with their respective governments … and different countries of course, have different levels of regulation or partial regulation. We're in a kind of partially regulated area with likely more regulation coming in these sectors. But I would say it's the asset owners, not the vendors that I'd be looking to.”

But connected industrial control system environments are complicated, with many different vendors in the supply chain, including commercial information technologies like cloud services, which adversaries are increasingly targeting for their potential to create an exponential effect.

“Security matters on all of these sides,” Trey Herr, director of the Atlantic Council initiative, told Nextgov. “The vendors are the point of greatest regulatory leverage so addressing cybersecurity at the design stage can have the widest impact but with least understanding of the specific environments in which they'll be used. Asset owners have the best picture about how they use this technology and security matters here in how they deploy and manage the security of these devices. Vendors might be OT focused or IT focused, like cloud vendors, so regulators need to keep focused on both communities.” 

That is something lawmakers are currently deliberating on with the goal of introducing legislation this summer.  But Herr said more of the community’s attention is currently on the asset-owner incorporation level than on the IT supply-chain elements that are also involved.

“We have a lot more effort and energy on the asset owner level with the Sector Risk Management Agencies at the moment than other parties, especially the IT vendors,” he said.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.