Last week I was in the Middle East, speaking at a very interesting security conference attended by management from the region's major energy companies. Today's blog was going to cover what I learned at this event, but that will have to wait. Instead, in an interesting coincidence, a new super worm called Flame (or sKyWIper), has been discovered targeting sites in the Middle East. So today I will explore what impacts (if any) this new worm will have on SCADA or ICS security.

In 2010, the whole industrial automation world was stirred by the sudden appearance of the now infamous Stuxnet malware. In 2011 there were more publicly disclosed vulnerabilities than in the previous decade, with attack code readily available for more than a third of them. The need for improved cyber security for industrial networks has never been more apparent. Besides this targeted need, however, there is another reason why cyber security technology like Tofino is needed. That reason is the broader need for reliable networks that are used in mission-critical applications.

Recently I wrote about one of the fundamentals of industrial cyber security, which is the concept of Defense in Depth. Today I am going to write about another foundation concept, which goes hand-in-hand with Defense in Depth, and that is using ANSI/ISA-99 Standards to improve control system security.

In reading about critical infrastructure protection and cyber security issues every day, I'm beginning to see a theme in our industry that is of special interest to me – cyber threats.

Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) is important for the future of SCADA / ICS security - and in this article I explain why.