Hello Everyone,
Hope everyone is safe and doing good.
Today we are continuing our Second blog in the Series of SCADA/ICS Security. We are going to learn few essential components of ICS and protocols in this blog.
Let’s see what we have here.
INDUSTRIAL CONTROL SYSTEMS comprises of these components they are
DCS – Distributed Control System
BPCS – Basic Process Control Systems
SIS – Safety Instrumentation Systems
HMI – Human Machine Interface
PLC – Programmable Logic Controller
RTU – Remote Terminal Unit
IED – Intelligent Electronic Device
DCS – Distributed Control Systems
Large scale control systems used to perform specific industry tasks. It contains several field devices, Input/Output Devices.
It connects group of localized Controllers such as RTU/PLC to perform tasks for the production process and it will be controlled by the Centralized Supervisory Control Loop which is called as SCADA.
SCADA – Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)
A supervisory Control System that controls and monitors industrial facilities and infrastructure.
SCADA ARCHITECTURE:
PLC – PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC CONTROLLER
Its a small solid state computer to perform the instructions for specific task that can be customized.
It contains three modules:
1. CPU Module – Processing of data and memory happens in this module.
2. Power Supply Module – Necessary power supply by converting from AC to DC.
3. I/O Modules – Connecting the sensors and actuators with system for sensing and controlling pressure, temperature and flow.
BPCS – Basic Process Control Sytems
It is responsible for Process control and monitoring of industrial processes. This is the system that responds to input signals from process associated equipment to generate output signals that cause its associated equipment to operate based on approved design control strategy.
BPCS is responsible for all sorts of control such as temperature, pressure, feedback control loops used in industries.
SIS – SAFETY INSTRUMENTED SYSTEMS(SIS)
This system is being used to safeguard the Manufacturing environment in case of any hazardous incidents in the industry. It uses layers of protection to prevent any critical processes from reaching unsafe operating conditions.
Like we have the OSI Model for our Traditional Communication. We have PURDUE MODEL in OT Technologies.
We have these protocols discussed in our Next Blog in this series. Stay tuned to get more on OT Security.
Thank you for reading.
Be safe and Secure.
AUTHOR
SAM NIVETHAN V J
Security analyst and Trainer
