Analyzing vulnerabilities between SCADA system and SUC due to interdependencies

Interdependencies within and among Critical Infrastructures (CIs), e.g., between Industrial Control Systems (ICSs), in particular Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, and the underlying System Under Control (SUC), have dramatically increased the overall complexity of related systems, causing the emergence of unpredictable behaviors and making them more vulnerable to cascading failures. It is vital to get a clear understanding of these often hidden interdependency issues and tackle them with advanced modeling and simulation techniques. In this paper, vulnerabilities due to interdependencies between these two exemplary systems (SCADA and SUC) are investigated and analyzed comprehensively using a modified five-step methodical framework. Furthermore, suggestions for system performance improvements based on the investigation and analysis results, which could be useful to minimize the negative effects and improve their coping capacities, are also presented in this paper.