Critical Infrastructure Assessments

Vulnerability Assessments: Critical for Manufacturing Facilities

Is your company compliant with current government regulations?
If you’re under NERC, are you prepared for NERC CIP 5?
Did you realize your manufacturing systems don’t need to be connected to a network to be compromised?

Manufacturing systems often operate separately from the corporate network, generally by placing a firewall between their systems and corporate. It would seem that this would protect the manufacturing network since they only allow specific traffic into their environment. Unfortunately, that sense of security may not be warranted. Manufacturing facilities often do not have intrusion prevention systems between the corporate network and the manufacturing network. Most do not have an anti-virus application running on the control systems; and most do not routinely patch their systems, leaving them vulnerable to many known exploits — and especially to those unknown threats.

Stuxnet proved systems could be compromised without network connectivity

In June 2010, the Stuxnet computer worm was discovered. It spread via Microsoft Windows systems through the use of infected removable drives, such as USB flash drives. It also spread through other means such as peer-to-peer remote procedure call (RPC) which infected and updated computers inside private networks that were not directly connected to the Internet. Once started, Stuxnet spread quickly and indiscriminately, not only compromising systems, but also possessing the ability for industrial espionage.

There is a good chance that your systems were not harmed by this worm as this was a very targeted attack affecting specific systems in a specific location, but it shows how manufacturing systems can be harmfully affected, even accidentally as collateral damage as in the case with Stuxnet.

Even if your company has multiple layers of protection in place, it’s wise to routinely have a third party perform cyber vulnerability assessments.

Enet 1 Group continuously monitors for new threats

Through more than 25 years of securing networks, we have forged personal and organizational relationships that alert us to potential threats before they spread. Additionally, we monitor multiple sources for signs of new malicious activities. Since security is the foundation of all we do we take it seriously, making it our mission to protect our customers from invasion.

Experts in government regulations and compliance

Because manufacturing facilities are targets for harmful intrusion, especially those that could be used for catastrophic damage, such as nuclear plants, chemical plants, munitions plants, Tim and our team of experts are thoroughly familiar with government regulations, not only for NERC CIP-005 and CIP-007, but also for DHS CFATS compliance in the petrochemicals industry. Since our field experience encompasses a wide array of industries, we’re familiar with industry-specific requirements. We specialize in conducting vulnerability assessments on real-time live operating SCADA, DCS, EMS, and process control systems. We have created a proven process that assesses both physical and cyber threats to SCADA and process control systems without effecting the safe operations of the plant or control center.

Our team volunteers on several regulations and standards development committees giving us the benefit of being close to the process and people involved with setting compliance guidelines.

Tim Smith, our founder and CEO, has managed the security of over 80 manufacturing facilities globally in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. He knows in detail what to look for when assessing a network’s vulnerabilities and can advise customers of new threats and assist in preparations for their prevention. We want to assess your needs and work to protect your facility from harm.