Dmitry Darensky, head of industrial cybersecurity practice at Positive Technologies, shared the knowledge that relay protection and automation terminals (RPA) and programmable logic controllers (PLC) are attractive to hackers, especially targeting industrial enterprises in Russia and other countries.
Although cases of successful attacks on PLCs and RPA terminals are often unknown, such attacks have serious consequences. According to Darensky, these devices are the main target of attackers attacking industrial facilities.
Such relay protection and automation devices and PLCs are simple computers specially designed to perform narrow tasks such as monitoring, measuring and regulating the operating parameters of electrical substations in the electrical networks of industrial facilities. These are key components of an organization’s infrastructure and are often directly linked to technological processes such as production or power generation.
The expert noted that in recent years special tools have appeared to carry out hacker attacks on such devices. And while successful cases of such attacks are not common, organizations should, by default, provide protection for this critical level of equipment.
Typically, relay protection devices and PLCs are not equipped with special cybersecurity tools, but are always included in enterprises’ technological IT infrastructure, which is well protected against hacker attacks.
Source: Ferra
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