Cyber is a series that will help empower you to protect your industrial automation better. Or at least know why it is so hard to defend.
Plain Old Telephone Service was, for decades, king. It allowed our ancestors to communicate at a speed never before imagined, started the internet and took economies into a whole new age. However, just like serial, it is slowly dying.
Back in the dark ages, aka when I started, several customers used a software called Win911. The beauty of this software laid in the ability to dial in and communicate with the plants. You could find out what alarms were active, acknowledge them and, with the help of SCADA lady (or whichever voice you choose), you could tie into your control system.
Newer versions all SMS and email connections. Beware that these are common protocols and software that is easier to exploit. You can send a lot of information fairly fast, especially on newer phone lines. Please be careful when you set those up to use a proper system for securing them as the SMS and email will be tied to an internet accessible server somewhere.
Of course, hacking phones goes way back. It is not high tech and should not be your main priority. However, it is worth nothing that POTS systems in the USA are being removed, so if you have something on them POTS, you need a game plan.
The Cuckoo's Egg, by Cliff Stoll, is a great book on hacking legacy systems. If I did not write a TLDR yet, I will need to get on that.
Comments