In his keynote speech at the ITU Telecom World 2012 conference, Eugene Kaspersky(picture), CEO and co-founder of Kaspersky Lab highlighted the dangers of the cyber-arms race and showcased Kaspersky Lab’s approach to protecting vulnerable industrial systems.
“In the long run, cyber-warfare is where all parties lose: attackers, victims and even uninvolved observers. Unlike traditional weapons, tools used in cyber-warfare are very easy to clone and reprogram by adversaries. The most important move to survive in this environment is the development and deployment of a new, advanced security paradigm for the most critical infrastructure.”
Summary of what Eugene Kaspersky said:
- Traditional malware already has notable side effects on critical infrastructure
- Causes of events like the 2003 blackout in U.S. and Canada were results of both a software failure and an inability to monitor the real state of energy systems
- Furthermore, the ongoing escalation of the cyber-arms race increases this problem:
- Stuxnet and Duqu were uncovered in 2010 and 2011
- 2012 unveiled Gauss and Flame, as well as the targeted miniFlame tool
- Cyber-warfare is a universal threat with no respect to borders. Its impact on the most critical industrial systems can be disastrous
- Proper protection of vulnerable industrial systems is the top priority
In his keynote address, Eugene Kaspersky described the essential measures to protect industrial control systems. A new, secure unit to obtain trusted workflow information is the first step towards an efficient protection against cyber-warfare. In response to such challenges, Kaspersky Lab is working on a Secure Operating System, which will serve as the trusted node for Industrial Control Systems.
Read more about Kaspersky Lab’s view on security of Industrial Control Systems and essential requirements for a Secure Operating System in the blog post by Eugene Kaspersky over here.
“We can’t let cyber-warfare stall human progress, as it threatens not only governments and businesses, but regular people as well,” commented Eugene Kaspersky after the event. “Our first priority is to make sure that cyber threats will not affect critical infrastructure. This goal has to be understood and embraced by all involved parties, on an international level.”
The cybersecurity company said it is committed to building a new kind of operation system in the hopes of defending against major industrial exploits and attacks.
The “Secure Operating System” will be tailored for industrial use such as in nuclear power stations, energy supply, transportation control facilities, financial and telecommunications systems as infrastructure, among others.
It will work as an “additional security layer” that runs on top of an original OS, monitoring healthy systems and isolating threats to stop malware from disrupting energy allocation, phone networks or stealing sensitive information.
