Kinetic impact of exploiting operational technologies

The Hollywood hit Die Hard 4.0 tailors a story in which a group of terrorist begins sequentially bringing down the entire US by using cyber attacks and leveraging the same to shut down critical infrastructure systems. The script writer's imagination also realizes the aftermaths of the cyber attacks storm which may cause physical damage, casualties or even death.

Cyber attacks resulting in kinetic impact are just not the fictional makeup of imaginative minds, it is becoming real. The kinetic impact of cyber attacks can result in physical damage, casualties or even death via exploitation of critical infrastructure, systems and operational processes. It is claimed that the kinetic impact of cyber attack is now a reality as they are being used continuously via Internet periphery or by leveraging human resources gullibility to conduct sabotage, espionages & shutdowns.

From the viewpoint of a nation-state, the vulnerability in CPS systems can be utilized to do serious damage to a rival state's critical infrastructure to establish any type of strategic edge. The incident of stuxnet in Iran validates this concept as it damaged the centrifuges at one of the fuel enrichment facility. It damaged cyber physical systems (CPS) of the nuclear facility resulting in its malfunctioning. The other examples are project aurora, Los Angeles traffic chaos, Queensland water facility malfunctioning & tramways derailed in Lodz, Poland, etc .

CPS is referred to as amalgamation of physical and computation resources i.e. computer systems running physical infrastructure and processes.The economic power of these systems is yet to be tapped or realized . Organizations worldwide are heavily investing in building these systems for ease of operations and to earn hefty profits via automation of processes.

These systems can be found in automotive systems, avionics , medcial equipments , electric , power and communications systems, defence armor etc. The past security incidents warrants that the architects of CPS to further strengthen system design requirements, development process & system retirement methodologies.

These technologies (CPS) are designed in such a way that they can establish control and monitor via utilization of IT systems and this functionality makes them vulnerable to kinetic impact if not protected efficiently.

Any hacker who can think out of the cloud can exploit the interconnections of a CPS system. It is important that the global security community needs to realize the threat posed to CPS and other systems against cyber attacks, which can send kinetic ripples.

This needs examination of how the operations technology work, how these technologies are evolving and marrying with the Internet technologies, and how they have been deployed. Although the security community debate extensively about the increasing reality of kinetic impact and recognizing the recent events as the starting point of the cyber kinetic era, a contrarian view still exist with respect to large scale and non-recoverable impact of cyber attacks on operational technologies. However, fears of severe cyber attacks ahead which can cause deadly aftermaths are not unwarranted.

The security community has to find answers in terms of technology capabilities, robust cyber policies, standards and regulations. As these types of attacks are going to create real and long lasting impact and there may be spurt of cross border attacks, they deserve attention from the perspective of international conflict resolutions. The global community can also work towards harmonizing international laws and agreements on cyber conflicts. These propositions are at nascent stage and need granular research before their implementation.