Cyber Terror Threats Against Nuclear Power Plants

Abstract

After the Cold War period, with the restructuring of the world, globalization, the revolution in information technology and the reconstruction of capitalism have created a new type of society, the "network society". The dependence of countries on information technologies, especially the internet, has increased day by day, and it has become almost impossible for individuals, state institutions and private companies to continue their activities independently of cyberspace, which is described as the fifth operational area. This situation has made it a critical priority to ensure the physical and cyber security of nuclear power plants, which carry the energy burden of the societies and at the same time pose great security risks. In this period, states, state-sponsored and radical terrorist groups that wanted to close the power deficit against military and economically strong states, started to develop asymmetric methods of struggle. In the end new threat vectors such as cyber terrorism have emerged and states that have moved many institutions and services to cyberspace have become more vulnerable to malicious attacks and terrorist activities. In this study, the concept of terrorism and cyber terrorism have been examined and focused on the SCADA systems of nuclear power plants and in the last section cyber security of these systems have been evaluated. This Implementation of this model aims to simplify the process for all organizations in the Nuclear Sector—regardless of their size, cybersecurity risk, or current level of cybersecurity sophistication—to apply the principles and best practices of risk management. Ultimately, the framework and this implementation model are focused on helping individual organizations reduce and better manage their cybersecurity risks, contributing to a more secure and resilient sector overall.