Towards Security and Privacy of SCADA Systems through Decentralized Architecture

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems are typically of complex as well as centralized in nature which control and monitor the physical processes through field devices and actuators. SCADA systems are heavily utilized in Critical National Infrastructures, such as electrical power generation plants, water supplies, and gas pipelines. The proper and continuous operation of such systems is crucial for the economic growth of government and our society. The adoption of modern communication technologies in the SCADA system to enable efficient monitoring of human-inaccessible environment potentially introduces several security vulnerabilities including denial of service attacks, data and identity spoofing, and data poisoning etc. Such security vulnerabilities negatively impact the system's operational capability. In this paper, we first review the security postures of modern SCADA systems by understanding the architectural components. Then, we analyze the security challenges and vulnerabilities associated with these architectures. We also provide a high level decentralized SCADA system architecture that potentially alleviates the above-stated security issues by utilizing the benefit of tamper-resistant ledger.