Before expanding the topic “ Information Security of Automated Systems”, we will decide on which systems can be considered automated. With every decade, our civilization is becoming more and more technological.
The need for high-quality products is increasing, along with it the number of routine work and responsibilities is growing. It is with them that automated systems are called upon to cope. They control the manufacture of certain products or certain processes. Moreover, the result is always identical to the standard. Industrial and financial enterprises are equipped with such systems; they control almost all processes requiring automation. Of course, a lot of important information that needs to be protected passes through these systems. Information security of automated systems is the main problem of large enterprises.
The threats to information systems have their own classification. Most often, the purpose of cyber attacks is confidential data, for example, details of financial enterprises. Passing through local networks, this information becomes vulnerable, however, its extraction is available only to highly qualified specialists. Has its weak point and the hardware and software part of the system. The information security of the company will not be respected if an attacker destroys the desired program, adds an extra element to it, or changes the order in which important data is located. Information exposed only to a specific person or process is also at risk.
The above problems can occur in several cases. Sometimes they are generated by such natural factors as floods, fires, hurricanes and other natural disasters. Sometimes the faults that occur in the system, in which data is lost, are to blame. However, most often information security problems arise due to a person’s fault. Such threats are passive or active. If a person harmed the system unintentionally, for example, he made a mistake while programming, then the problem is considered passive. An active threat becomes when the harm is done intentionally, for example, unique information is stolen or destroyed. As a rule, such actions are committed for the sake of money. A person can also harm the system remotely by introducing a malicious program (script, code, etc.) into it.
How is information security of automated systems maintained? There are several methods for protecting information. The most common was the method of creating obstacles when an attacker is blocked by a complex of passwords or a “security” program. You can secure the system by controlling access to it. Such management consists of:
- identification of resources, personnel and users;
- verification of the authenticity of the object or person (compliance with the established model or regulation);
- registration of all calls to protected resources;
- response to attempts of any illegal actions or unauthorized entry into the system.
Information security of automated systems is provided by several other methods - camouflage, regulation, coercion and motivation. All these methods make such systems practically invulnerable to cyber pirates, which positively affects their work.