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US One Step Closer To Electric Grid Cyberguards
coondoggie writes "The US Department of Energy this week officially opened up the bidding for a National Electric Sector Cyber Security Organization that would protect the nation's electrical grid from cyber attacks. According to the DOE, the agency has set an aggressive goal to meet the nation's need for a reliable, efficient, and resilient electric power grid, as well as improved accessibility to a variety of energy sources for generation. In order to achieve this, an independent organization is needed (PDF) to provide executive leadership to facilitate research, development, and deployment priorities; identify and disseminate best cybersecurity practices; organize the collection, analysis, monitoring, and dissemination of infrastructure vulnerabilities and threats; and enhance cybersecurity of the electric grid, including control and IT systems."
Disconnect those systems from the internet and make sure the networks they connect to are not connected to the internet.
If they want to be able to monitor, then add sensors as needed and connect that system to the internet.
Dumbasses, all around.
1. Don't put key systems on the internet
2. ???
3. PROFIT!
I have a great way to protect the power grid against cyber-attacks: Don't connect it to the internet!
If there's no route to the power grid's control computers via the internet, then there's no way that a cyber-attack could affect it. And no, this doesn't mean that power companies can't connect to the internet to accept bill payment or requests to connect/disconnect service - just that they shouldn't allow anything critical to be CONTROLLED over the internet - and it also doesn't mean that they can't have a private TCP/IP network that for sharing information among their various systems, which obviously is something that they will want to optimize the power grid and power production to get maximum return on their high capital investments.
Loose things are easy to lose. You're getting your hair cut. They're going there to see their aunt.
This seems similar to the InfraGard initiative, but standard operating procedure dictates our government must form another organization to oversee the preexisting organization that is involved the current organizations et al. Recursive agencies cost us money, and while I do advocate heavier infrastucture protection, hopefully this isn't just another bean-counting expenditure, but instead an operation that actually contributes to our infrastructure security.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
seems that building an actual reliable & redundant power grid would be a better idea...
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
... who will monitor the cyberguards?
The US's electricity grid needs a big red button that reads - "Disconnect from the internet." This new organisation will then spend years and millions on communities and finally decide to push that button. Then the bunnies and little kids will live happily ever after.
Seriously guys, use the Internet for getting diagnostic data back but for the love of god do not hook in any control systems. We're talking both at the state and city level. If you have to send a guy down there in a van to flip a switch then frankly do that instead or alternatively telephone into it.
No, we should have both a secure infrastructure and an infrastructure that benefits from connecting to the public Internet. And a public Internet that benefits from connecting to the secure infrastructure.
What you're saying is like saying we shouldn't run railroads across the Wild West because it's Wild. We needed both complete railroad networks, and a governable West. And we got both. And then we got everything else that could follow on a governable, railroad accessible West.
The American Way is to do some things because not because they're easy, but because they're hard. Because those hard things yield the greatest rewards. Including proving we can do anything worthwhile we want, even when the easy cop out beckons.
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make install -not war
Some systems are properly a monopoly. The nation shouldn't have two Army services. In general security for a given political area, like nationwide, statewide or countywide are best (or perhaps just least badly) run by a monopoly governed by officials elected by the people. Certainly at the national level that is the case.
Outsourcing that job to a private corporation to hold the national monopoly is asking for trouble. There will be no pool of private competitors competing for that contract, because the national market supports only one vendor: the one who wins that contract. That circular setup means the benefits of competition to produce the best candidate will not.
There is plenty of room for outsourcing regional security work to vendors actually competing at that scale, if indeed there are multiple vendors of security to large power grids. Let the regional front line vendors compete to keep their contracts. But the monopoly at the top that actually manages those regions into a comprehensive, integrated national infrastructure defense should be within the government. Which is the only monopoly that has a chance to behave properly.
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make install -not war
Don't connect it to the internet!
"and it also doesn't mean that they can't have a private TCP/IP network that for sharing information among their various systems"
:
Knowing that boundary is becoming increasingly difficult with our interconnected society. Not to mention, things like social engineering, rogue media (flash-drives etc...) are increasingly hard to regulate internally. A lot of these security issues also stem off an even more pivotal attack vector, the human element.
The engineers, programmers, and designers may be well aware of security practices and threats, but a blue-collar operator may not be as well versed in these areas. This leads to a crossroads: Do we focus on more 'intelligent systems' that are infallible (as much as they can be, and more than they are now), with the ability to be more secure, regardless of operator skill level? Or the alternative, entailing increased operator training?
Well planned systems are always fallible in the hands of the untrained, so I imagine the best scenario falls somewhere in between, but leaning towards the automated side, for systems are easier and cheaper to maintain in the long run if they are designed solid from the onset.
Which leads to a paradox. Contract bidding usually goes the cheapest route, which is almost always not the highest of quality. With these contractors spitting out unrefined systems at minimal-effort-maximal-profit mentality, we will always be behind the power curve (so to speak).
In the end, if and when an infrastructure attack does hit us hard, I imagine there will be less regret of preventative measures, and more blame flaming, for that is what we do as a country, isn't it?
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
I am sure that Microsoft would do a fantastic job handling securing our power grid! They get my vote of confidence!
Murphy's law:
If you can't connect to the net - The net can't
connect to you.
Why would you want key infrastructures to be accessible through the net? Use leased lines.. for the children!
Too bad there are barely any indians left to kill.
(I don't think people living today are particularly responsible for the crimes of history, but we can choose what we glorify)
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
We need an Electrical Grid Cybersecurity Czar. How can we get anything done without a CZAR?
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
Disconnect those systems from the internet
Remember, a lot of these are old school systems. I know that a lot of remote SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) equipment was never on the Internet. Why? Because it had a modem instead. The electric utilities upgrade their stuff at glacial speed. I bet a lot of that stuff is still out there, and still has a modem connected and has weak to no security.
Computers obey me.
I have a great way to protect the power grid against cyber-attacks: Don't connect it to the internet!
I work in Industrial Automation, IE the kind that is used in Power Plants, Manufacturing Plants and basically anything else that is automated. The equipment and software is generally controlled by third party manufacturers. Of course as no software is really bug free, these manufacturers are continually releasing updates (although I have reported some of those practices on The DailyWTF) and they release these updates via .. The .. Internet.
Fine, so how do I get my updates in a timely manner? Perhaps I should download from the public internet and walk the software across the air-gap to the secure Internet?? Well that sounds fine and dandy until you consider that right now (while I am slacking off) I am in VA and working on a manufacturing system in SC, so walking that air-gap would take at least a 6 hour, one-way drive just to get to the plant. So we are talking an extra $1000 on top of the project costs just to do a single, simple update.
That kinda screws my effectiveness to do my job. And that is the base argument of why things are connected to the internet - convenience and cost. But the answer is not go backwards and take all the tools away. The answer is to provide better security on the systems that are connected to the Internet
Two thoughts have crossed my mind while I was writing this:
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
What you're saying is like saying we shouldn't run railroads across the Wild West because it's Wild. We needed both complete railroad networks, and a governable West. And we got both. And then we got everything else that could follow on a governable, railroad accessible West.
I'm afraid your analogy breaks down because no one is suggesting we don't provide electrical service to homes that have Internet service, which is what your train analogy would imply. They are just suggesting that grid control systems not be run by computers connected to the Internet, which is quite a reasonable proposition.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
I have a great way to protect the power grid against cyber-attacks: Don't connect it to the internet!
Nothing on the grid is, or will be connected to the Internet. Yes, you may find it amazing, but the IT folks in the energy sector have already figured this out, even without your advice! Duh..
However, if you think that's all it takes to secure the grid you're even more naive than you sound.
All of the transmission organizations I've worked with have their grid networks completely isolated from their "business" networks that may have some external connectivity. Most won't even allow a simple serial (as in RS-232) wire connection between these systems to transfer data (it's a royal pain when we need to get data from one network to the other and usually involves some form of sneaker-net).
The problem is that even that level of isolation does not guarantee that these systems can't get hacked into. Some of the equipment on the grid is ancient and the cost to upgrade to something modern is cost prohibitive. Contrary to what most people think, power companies are tightly regulated by public utility commissions. They can't raise rates willy-nilly, so expensive upgrades usually don't get approved. Local politicians don't want their constituents pissed off because they approved a rate increase to enhance the infrastructure.
This is going to be a tough nut to crack and I for one am glad to see that this threat is finally being taken seriously.
Whether anything comes of it will remain to be seen.
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
on a large scale, it's indefensible. If we had a thousand dams with many thousands of small generators, many thousand solar installations on every structure in the country where it made sense, many thousands of tiny wind farms, many thousands of small geothermal generators, and so on, with passive protection from overload for all, this wouldn't be an issue. For that matter, neither would fuel shortages, at least as far as electricity goes.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Let's see. All the authority goes to the National Electric Sector Cyber Security Organization. All the responsibility remains with the grunts in the field. See anything wrong with that?
If it *does* work well, why not a National Cyber Security Organization for every other industry? Heck we could have one uber National Security Organization to rule over all the others.
We needed both complete railroad networks, and a governable West. And we got both.
You haven't been to the west, have you?
"The GPL is viral by design, like any good religion."
There are a billion Indians to kill, but they haven't done anything to me so I vote for leaving them alone. Besides, the Pakistanis have dibs from what I've heard.
I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
Why would you need to have an internet connection to the grid? Do you really need the ability to shut off the power to a city or or country? I think not. You're local power utility, which controls the power going to your house (called a distribution organization) is who you need to interact with. The grid is within the realm of a different organization a (called a transmission organization). These organizations deal with the transmission of large amounts of power between cities, states, counties and such. You local power company buys it's power from them. In other words, they manage the trading of power between companies. I see no need for an individual to have any access to their infrastructure at all.
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
What baffles me is that people don't look at this with the mindest present during the days of the developemnt of ARPA/DARPAnet: build a secure, multinode information infrastructure that is not subjected to widespread, catostrophic failure due to the failure of one or more nodes. Building it such that all nodes are known & secure doesn't guarantee perfection, but it puts us as close to top-notch infrastructure as possible. While building another net will entail huge outlays of taxpayer dollars, it would also (if done properly) yield new techology & innovation that would inevitably carry over to other industries and improve day-to-day life in general (as the internet has), in addition to solidifying national security. Build the best possible power management net & grid, work out the bugs, then figure out how/when it should be connected to the internet.
I thought Texas was just a honeypot for Teabaggers.
Runs on Win Server 2010
No, they're suggesting we don't put the power network on the Internet, because the Internet is too dangerous to secure. Just like they might have said don't put the railroad network in the Wild West, because the Wild West is too dangerous to secure. They might have said "stick to the coasts" or "just one secured corridor across the country": a private rail network that could be secured from the Wild West. Or a private power network that could be secured from the Internet.
Instead we built a rail network that tamed the West. Likewise, the security work to protect the power network would make the Internet safer for everyone. And the pair would grow both. And the US around it.
The proposition is reasonable, but wrong. Consider that in the 1840s the US was a sliver along the Atlantic and the Gulf, proposing to colonize the whole continent that it had political claims to, but which was filled with whole civilizations protecting their rightful land. Securing the West for American colonization would require unprecedented warfare and genocide, not to mention new engineering on an unprecedented scale. And they did it. The price was abominable, but that didn't stop them. And they reaped the reward, that we continue to benefit from.
We should learn from that history. Not to fail to secure what is ours, but not to do it in a way that exacts such a terrible cost. The Internet is not the 1800s American frontier, and the 21st Century has gained a lot more wisdom about the costs and alternatives. And the "natives" have a lot more power to protect themselves from the security invasion. We can secure the Internet enough to trust connecting the power grid and plenty of other essential infrastructure to it, without destroying the societies inhabiting the Internet, though protecting us from any threat from them. And gain the benefits of not just the networks, but the varied people on them.
Or we can give up on making the Internet safe for essential communications. Which will get us more expensive, more limited essential communications. And will leave the Internet vulnerable to whichever gangs care to ransack it. Securing it would be better, and is entirely possible.
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make install -not war
I lived there for years, in the Northern California that was created by the rail network, and which still cradles any number of outlaw cultures. That "Western independence" myth is for people from Glennbeckistan.
I also lived in Louisiana for years. That is an ungovernable wilderness.
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make install -not war
This time around we don't kill the "indians". Instead of invading and genociding the cultures already on the Internet, we secure our lines on them. Unlike material domains, there's infinite room on the Internet for everyone. But we should allow anyone who wants to live there securely that option, even if people want to live out in the open at their own risk.
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make install -not war
I wasn't criticizing your point about securing the internet, I was pointing out that it is pretty crass to talk about the taming of the West in these terms:
The American Way is to do some things because not because they're easy, but because they're hard. Because those hard things yield the greatest rewards. Including proving we can do anything worthwhile we want, even when the easy cop out beckons.
I suppose you could wave your hands around and say that isn't what you were doing, but that's what I saw.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Forget the power grid, all our communication infrastructure is equally if not more vulnerable.
A year ago, all of South San Jose suffered a communication outage due to this intentional fiber sabotage:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/162910/fiber_cuts_slash_silicon_valleys_internet_arteries.html
I was driving south on 101 to Morgan Hill to work. About 3 miles north of my destination, my cell phone call was lost. At work, we had power but no internet, phones, or cell phones. We had radio, that was about it. It was later blamed on the fiber lines cut, which happened coincidentally right after the AT&T union contract had expired. Might as well been a terrorist.
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
No, but once the railroad is complete he will be able to do so.
Greetings and Salutations.
The fact of the matter is that there is a lot of ANY countries infrastructure that can be easily disrupted if one can get access to them, either through physical access or through a network. There is little that can be done to prevent this, short of draconian measures that would be unacceptable to most Americans. Instead of creating an expensive bureaucracy that, very quickly, will graduate from protecting the country to perpetuating itself and growing without end (yes, like a cancer), perhaps it would be wiser to look at the infrastructure and find ways to upgrade it to make it more fault-tolerant. Right now, for example, the power grid is like a row of dominoes. Hit the right one at the right time, and, failure will cascade through the system, spreading darkness across the land. It seems that adding some way of breaking up the grid into smaller sections would allow for quicker control of such failure, and keeping the disruption to a minimum.
Having said this, I should also point out that this is a GREAT use of alternative energy sources. Instead of having one huge network, perhaps we could evolve to a number of smaller, self-contained grids powered by locally generated electricity.
Of course, changing America's interactions with the world to stop treating them in such a way that we generate large numbers of people who believe that we as such an enemy that the best course of action is to blow themselves up to kill us...
Pleasant dreams
Dave Mundt
YAB - http://blog.beemandave.com/
It would be nice to separate the electric generation, transmission, and distribution networks from the Internet, but it ain't happening. SCADA systems are being interconnected to each other and to proxies that deliver data to the Internet in real time, or near real time.
Nobody can avoid this. SCADA systems are delicious fountains of high fructose data that executive operations staff, researchers, and governments are finding hard to resist. The Smart Grid is only the latest of many wide eyed high tech applications to hit this space. There have been many before it.
We're already exposed. The question is how to build resiliency in to this effort. As you might imagine, it's not easy. This isn't some office application where damage can be repaired with a backup. These systems affect physical assets and public safety in our cities. There is no backup to restore broken lives.
This isn't an ideal situation. Most utilities would love to return to the days when everything could be isolated. But if anything, all this smart metering and smart grid stuff will cause everything to get even more connected and integrated. There is good value in such connections. Nevertheless, it has been hyped while glossing over the details of the security risks.
Now that we know we're exposed, we need people with embedded systems backgrounds, control engineers with practical systems design experience, and security professionals to come together and to share information without killing each other. (All three fields are well known for having their share of prima-donna character flaws)
I wish DOE the best of luck. The horse is already out of the barn and they're still trying to figure out how to close the door.
Nearly fifty percent of all graduates come from the bottom half of the class!
think 'computer virus'. how many programs do we have available to eradicate them? are the viruses gone? but there IS a way to prevent anything from entering the grid system... as said, don't connect it DIRECTLY to the internet. do what pirates do to overcome drm stuff for copying movies (play movie, capture ota with a camera, re-record on disc.)... in this case, get the source doc in printed form, scan it optically, then pass it back and forth to the internet as desired. no virus or hacking possible! thanks fer lis'nin' seekertom
Interesting post. But you said there is no internet connectivity, and they can still be hacked into. Through what medium?