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Utilities At Risk Over Network Security
David Utter
Staff Writer
2008-05-08
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Utilities' legacy systems receive updates to allow centralized management of their resources over a computer network. Convenient? Sure. Safe? Questionable.
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Why bother driving a car converted into a fuel bomb into a power substation when it's easier to grab control of an entire power grid?
The bad guys may be thinking this way today. Not enough of the good guys may be devoting the resources needed to thwarting such attacks as they need to do.
Paul Ferguson at security vendor Trend Micro said one potential threat to the integrity of Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems stems from a vulnerability in one Windows-based software suite.
"This vulnerability "could allow an un-authenticated remote attacker with the ability to connect to the SuiteLink service TCP port to shutdown the service abnormally by sending a malformed packet," SANS said of the problem.
"Exploitation of the vulnerability for remote code execution has not been proven, but it has not been eliminated as a potential scenario." Core Security picked up on the problem, where the flaw rests with a Windows component in the Invensys Wonderware InTouch SuiteLink service.
The National Vulnerability Database scored the threat as High. It's network-exploitable, with low complexity of access. Authentication is not required to reach the vulnerable component.
The idea a denial of service could bring about another situation like the blackout suffered in the Northeast a few years ago should be unconscionable to utility companies and security professionals. Let's hope this and similar issues receive proactive detection and repair, before anyone can create an attack to exploit it.
View All Articles by David Utter
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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