An experimental platform for assessing SCADA vulnerabilities and countermeasures in power plants

SCADA systems are nowadays exposed not only to traditional safety and availability problems, but also to new kinds of security threats. These are mainly due to the large number of new vulnerabilities and architectural weaknesses introduced by the extensive use of ICT and networking technologies into such complex systems. The analysis of the effects of these new threats is a mandatory activity to ensure the security of critical installation relying on SCADA systems. In this paper, after describing an experimental platform developed for studying the effects of ICT attacks against SCADA systems, we present some attack scenarios successfully exploited in this experimental platform, taking as reference the SCADA system of a typical Turbo-Gas Power Plant. Moreover we present a brief overview of the possible countermeasures for enhancing the security of SCADA systems.