Security by Design
“Security by Design is strongly needed to reduce risk,” said Maximillian G. Koń, CEO at WisePlant, in a recent article in Advancing Automation: Industrial Cybersecurity. He tells how so many industrial automation and control systems were created decades ago, long before the idea of sending plant data to IT or the cloud was ever dreamed of. He says that security weaknesses were generated “during system design, engineering, construction, installation, commissioning, operation, maintenance, and retirement.” And he warns that security must be inherent in the system, not simply added as an afterthought.
Wake-Up Call
To illustrate his point, Koń tells the story of the S.S. Eastland, a passenger ship that sailed the Great Lakes at the beginning of the last century. The ship was not well-designed to start with, having problems with stability. After the sinking of the Titanic, new safety regulations required installing enough lifeboats on any ship to hold all the passengers it was rated for. The owner of the S.S. Eastland complied, and soon the vessel had a full set of new lifeboats, mounted above the upper decks.
However, the ship was not designed for this additional weight so high above the center of gravity. One tragic day as several thousand people were boarding for a pleasure cruise, the Eastland began listing heavily, and then suddenly rolled over and sank, right next to the pier, in 20 feet of water. Over 800 people were lost.
To avoid such tragedies in the industrial realm, Koń lays out an Industrial Cybersecurity Program that follows a security by design approach in three phases: Assess, Implement, and Maintain. When discussing the Implement phase, Koń talks about “bolt-on security vs. built-in security.” He says that existing systems must use bolt-on security, while new systems can be designed with built-in security. Although this principle makes sense, it begs the question: Why should existing systems have to settle for bolt-on security?
A New Approach
Most traditional technologies do require bolt-on security. But a new approach to data communication, Skkynet’s DHTP protocol, supports software and services that are secure by design and ideal for Industrial IoT and IT-to-OT applications. This security-by-design implementation works equally well for new or existing systems, providing the best of both worlds. Rather than adding security to an existing system, it connects that system to a complete, stand-alone, secure-by-design IoT implementation. It’s almost like enveloping a ship in some kind of new, sink-proof technology, rather than simply adding lifeboats.
With Skkynet’s technology, the enterprise can keep its legacy equipment and SCADA systems as long as needed, and yet provide secure access to live production data for authorized parties―on-premise or in the cloud. Whenever new hardware is acquired, it can be phased in as necessary, with no disruption to data links between shop floor and top floor.
The important thing is the principle: Security by Design. Security is not something that can be bolted on at the end. It needs to be an integral, built-in part of the design of hardware, software, and industrial control systems. Let’s take to heart the lesson of the S.S. Eastland, and keep our systems on an even keel. With the right technology and approach, Industrial IoT and IT-to-OT data communication can be as secure as the air-gapped systems of yesteryear.
