Fergie's Tech Blog

SCADA Industry Debates Flaw Disclosure

Robert Lemos writes on SecurityFocus:

The outing of a simple crash bug has caused public soul-searching in an industry that has historically been closed-mouthed about its vulnerabilities.

The flaw, in a particular vendor's implementation of the Inter-Control Center Communications Protocol (ICCP), could have allowed an attacker the ability to crash a server.

Yet, unlike corporate servers that handle groupware applications or Web sites, the vulnerable server software--from process-control application maker LiveData--monitors and controls real-time devices in electric power utilities and healthcare settings. The best known types of devices are supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) devices and distributed control system (DCS) devices.

posted by Fergie @ 6/16/2006 05:22:00 PM