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Security in power plants

The 36th Chaos Computer Club summit is taking
place and there’s already the first horror message
around. According to Kaspersky, a widespread
control system from Siemens seems affected.

The DCS (Distributed Control System) SPPA-T3000 seems to run a large number of Java applets which can be remotely controlled. As this also means, control systems for oil and coal power plants like turbines and steam venting systems are affected, a whole power plant could be easily taken down meaning a huge problem for an entire city.

Blackouts are never good but exactly this problem with insecure apps that are exposed to the public with minor security systems can cause power plant systems to cease functioning. In times like these (winter) where we al rely on reliable power distribution to keep our homes warm and welcome, or in public where a lot of systems also base upon a reliable energy network, a brownout can become fatal.

Main problem of the SPPA-T3000 is the difficulty to change passwords and users which are mostly hardcoded into the app environment. Recent updates however have closed this major security flaw. The question is, however, how many administrators of such control systems made the update…


December 29, 2019 Netspark - 1594 posts - Member since: May 9th, 2011 No Comments »

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