Control Engineering

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Wireless security, industrial and otherwise
May 16, 2007

Companies that sell research often send out teasers to entice prospects to plunk down the money for a complete study. One that crossed my screen recently is from In-Stat, entitled "Mobile Security 2007: End Users are Losing It." While this isn't about process industries specifically, there are points that enter into our worlds and some facts that are simply too interesting to ignore.

Long story short, the study concludes that wireless is no more or less secure than wired. While older equipment was more porous, most of this has been replaced. (Obviously these people don't check industrial environments.)

As the release says, "The greatest threats today are mostly within the control of the end-users, such as not losing their equipment and taking care to change passwords and default settings. This exposes critical company data applications, not just email, to unauthorized access.
--Smartphone users lose their devices 40% more often than mobile phone users. (Yikes!--ed.)
--Too many organizations allow users to decide what technology they will use for mobile data, regardless of security implications.
--Carriers should differentiate their offerings through security training for their customers."

Stories of lost laptops with critical company data turn up daily. If your laptop interfaces with control systems, imagine what a hacker might be able to do with it. One major threat to companies in every industry is "social engineering" where someone bent on getting into your network might approach you or a colleague outside the plant, in a social context (restaurant or bar), and either discreetly pump you for information or simply steal your laptop or blackberry. Alcohol has been used to extract passwords before.

By the way, if you want the In-Stat study, it's yours for $1,995.

Posted by Peter Welander on May 16, 2007 | Comments (0)