Thwarting cyber-attacks and other threats

Averting cyber-attacks and other threats to vital systems that control the UK's industry and infrastructure will be the focus of a new institute.

Researchers at the Research Institute into Trustworthy Industrial Control Systems at Imperial College London, are to explore potential threats to the infrastructure that controls a range of processes, from nuclear power generation, energy distribution and transport networks.

Professor Chris Hankin, Director of the Research Institute into Trustworthy Industrial Control Systems at Imperial College London, said: "In 2007, parts of Estonia ground to a halt when it experienced a 'denial of service' cyber-attack, overloading servers, which lead to a temporary government shutdown. While this is an extreme example, it highlights how vulnerable countries are to these types of threats.

"Our Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are vital for running most of the industrial processes that underpin modern society. Research at Imperial's Institute will focus on working out what the potential dangers are, so that new technologies and procedures can be designed to mitigate them in the future."

Previously, ICS were developed to operate in isolation, but since the rise of the internet they have increasingly been connected to business IT networks, enabling them to be maintained remotely and providing engineers with more information about how they are operating. However, this makes them more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. The systems are also required to operate continuously for months at a time, making it more difficult to regularly install upgrades or 'patches' to prevent attacks on software. By comparison, patches for IT networks are done daily. Researchers at the Institute will look into how these systems can be made more robust without impacting on operations.