Siemens has issued a patch for its SIMATIC S7-300 and S7-400 families of programmable logic controllers (PLCs)—industrial control systems used to remotely monitor and operate manufacturing equipment. This is in response to a year-old product vulnerability warning originally issued in December of 2016 and recently updated to include another version of the S7-400 line. The controllers were vulnerable to remote attacks that could allow cybercriminals to obtain login credentials to the system or reset it into a “defect” mode, shutting down the controller. Andrea Carcano, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer commented below.
Andrea Carcano, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer:
“These vulnerabilities are the same type of vulnerabilities that Stuxnet targeted. Stuxnet was able to leverage both known and previously unknown vulnerabilities to install, infect and propagate, and was powerful enough to evade state-of-the-practice security technologies and procedures. These latest vulnerabilities highlight the length of time it is taking to achieve “security-by-design” in automation equipment. ICS cybersecurity solutions that include artificial intelligence and machine learning help to harden security for Industrial Control Systems so that cyberattacks are detected and mitigated early in the kill chain. The industry should be well past air gap protection strategies that will not hold up under the realities of today’s interconnect operating environments and the ingenuity of cyber attackers.”
