S4x15 Video: Attribution and Retribution Panel

S4x15 came on the heals of the attack on Sony. Everyone was discussing how cyber attack attribution can be done and the level of certainty that is possible, so we had a panel to discuss this very issue. The second part of the panel discussed what does the victim due...

Switches Get Stitches (or: Switches Get DNA Helicased)

There is a ‘talk franchise’ that has started titled ‘Switches Get Stitches.’  Started by Eireann Leverett and Colin Cassidy, it showcases problems in industrial network switch hardware and firmware.  Digital Bond Labs offers a humble...

ESCAR USA Thoughts and the ROI of Investing in Cybersecurity

ESCAR was an interesting event. There were about 150 in attendance from various parts of the auto cybersecurity community including OEMs, tier 1 vendors, and defense products. There were speakers on a variety of good topics, the full lineup is available at...

Shodan for Rocket Scientists

Shodan is a really useful tool for, well, all sorts of research.  Not only can you quickly determine what the public-facing security impact of a new vulnerability is going to be, you can find all sorts of control systems attached to the Internet that shouldn’t...

Unsolicited Response Podcast: Eric Byres after Tofino

After a long and successful struggle to bring an industrial firewall to market, Eric Byres is leaving Belden and Tofino behind. We shouldn’t call it retirement because I expect that Eric will be contributing in a number of different ways in the next ten years. I...

ESCAR Presentation

I enjoyed last week in Detroit at ESCAR (Embedded Security in Cars). I went there to present on the topic of vehicle security and how remote access and third party devices impact the threat landscape. Many researchers have published about the security concerns of...

ICS Security Research Newsletter: Issue 15-2

The team at Digital Bond Labs has published their ICS Security Research newsletter for the 2nd quarter. I suggest you subscribe to the newsletter, but if you want to view this issue directly, it is available at this link. The issue includes: the latest on...

S4xJapan Call for Presentations

We are pleased to announce a return to Tokyo for the S4xJapan event on Friday, November 6th. S4xJapan will be held again at Academy Hills on the 49th Floor of the Roppongi Hills Mori Building. There will be a fun and novel social event (last year was the Kaspersky...

Vendors Step Up & Step Down

While progress on adding basic security to PLC/RTU/Controllers, Level 1 of the Purdue Model, continues to be excruciatingly slow, there is much good news from vendors that make the applications that reside at Level 2. Vendors offering HMI, Engineering...

S4x15 Video: Simulating Multiple Substation Failures

This is a great session for power engineers and those involved in substations to watch. It is an extremely technical session by Dr. Chee-Wooi Ten of Michigan Technological University. The key point is actually easy to understand. The most critical substations to...