![Gas Control Systems, INC PSA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Gas_Control_Systems%2C_INC_PSA.jpg)
A cyber-kinetic attack targets
cyber-physical systems and causes direct or indirect physical damage, injury or death, or environmental impact solely through the exploitation of vulnerable information systems and processes. Notable attacks in this category in the recent past have targeted critical infrastructure facilities such as
water treatment
Water treatment is any process that improves the quality of water to make it appropriate for a specific end-use. The end use may be drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recreation or many other uses, inc ...
plants,
nuclear power plants,
oil refineries
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, lique ...
, and medical facilities.
Crossing the cyber-physical divide
In the early days of computing, security threats were typically limited attacks that caused destruction of data, or degraded access to computing systems or hardware. However, the last several decades have seen technologies—ranging from
supervisory control and data acquisition (
SCADA) to
Internet of Things—which describe objects embedded with sensors and software and utilize the Internet to exchange data.
Such a system is termed as a
Cyber-physical system
A cyber-physical system (CPS) or intelligent system is a computer system in which a Mechanism (engineering), mechanism is controlled or monitored by computer-based algorithms. In cyber-physical systems, physical and software components are deeply ...
. Such systems cross the traditional divide between purely in-computer systems (software) and real-life systems (physical systems), with algorithms being autonomously able to control physical systems.
One of the most notably cyber attacks that had a physical impact, causing significant degradation of a target system, were the
Stuxnet
Stuxnet is a malicious computer worm first uncovered in 2010 and thought to have been in development since at least 2005. Stuxnet targets supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and is believed to be responsible for causing subs ...
and Aurora worms. The
Stuxnet
Stuxnet is a malicious computer worm first uncovered in 2010 and thought to have been in development since at least 2005. Stuxnet targets supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and is believed to be responsible for causing subs ...
worm was first revealed in 2010 and specially targeted weaknesses in Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), devices in the SCADA category of systems. Though it was never positivity attributed, it is widely believed that the malicious software was developed jointly by the United States and Israel to disrupt the Iranian nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz. It has also been reported that Stuxnet and associated variants have infected more than 30,000 systems and had a lasting presence which was extremely difficult to eradicate and purify. Both malicious programs exploited Zero-Day attacks on Windows-based operating systems.
As computing crosses the cyber-physical barrier, there is significant effort spent on 'smart' systems, for instance
smart cities
A smart city is a technologically modern urban area that uses different types of electronic methods and sensors to collect specific data. Information gained from that data is used to manage assets, resources and services efficiently; in retur ...
,
smart home
Smart or SMART may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Smart'' (Hey! Say! JUMP album), 2014
* Smart (Hotels.com), former mascot of Hotels.com
* ''Smart'' (Sleeper album), 1995 debut album by Sleeper
* '' SMart'', a children's television se ...
s,
smart manufacturing
Smart manufacturing is a broad category of manufacturing that employs computer-integrated manufacturing, high levels of adaptability and rapid design changes, digital information technology, and more flexible technical workforce training. Other g ...
and smart vehicles. In the context of cybersecurity, new threats are emerging that target these smart systems. The timeline of cyber-kinetic attacks attests incidents from as early as 1982. Such attacks on information systems that can have physical world impacts are a complete shift in paradigms within the cyber security community, though not unheard of. Many SCADA systems have been fielded up to 20 years ago have very little in the way of modern security protections that are instrumented.
These types of attacks have the potential to bring a new dynamic forward in the concept of
cyber warfare
Cyberwarfare is the use of cyber attacks against an enemy state, causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computer systems. Some intended outcomes could be espionage, sabotage, propaganda, manipulation or economic wa ...
and the potential impact on electrical systems, financial systems, critical infrastructure, and communication systems. Though, in reality, these types of attacks may have a closer relation to espionage or idealistically driven attacks, rather than overt warfare. Cyber-kinetic attacks should not be confused with the simple denial of an information system, such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. In these cases, such attacks merely deny access to an information system, where as a cyber-kinetic attack would deny access to a system by physically destroying part of a system or the entire system, rather than just communication access.
References
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Cybercrime
Internet security