SCADA vulnerabilities and attacks: A review of the state‐of‐the‐art and open issues

Abstract

Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) serves as the backbone of several critical infrastructures, including water supply systems, oil pipelines, transportation and electricity. It accomplishes essential functions, such as monitoring data from pumps, valves and transmitters. Across different generations, SCADA has undergone a significant evolution from a typically isolated environment to a highly interconnected network. Although this conversion has benefits for SCADA, such as enhanced performance efficiency and the cost reduction of heavy equipment, it has made SCADA more vulnerable to various cyber-attacks. Several SCADA security approaches are still provided by IT-based systems that are possibly not efficient enough to deflect the risks and threats originating from SCADA field operations. As a result, it is critically important to analyse cyber risks associated with the industrial SCADA system. The goal of this survey is to explore the security vulnerabilities of SCADA systems and classify the threats accordingly. In this project, we initially reviewed SCADA systems from different scopes, including architecture, vulnerabilities, attacks, intrusion detection techniques (IDS) and testbeds. We proposed taxonomies of vulnerabilities, attacks, IDS and testbeds according to predefined criteria. We concluded the survey by highlighting the research challenges and open issues for future research in the field of SCADA security.