Too few vulnerabilities in industrial control systems (ICS) are assigned CVEs because of client non-disclosure agreements. This results in repeatedly discovering the same vulnerabilities for different clients, especially in critical infrastructure. Don C. Weber from IOActive shares his experiences as an ICS security professional and suggests improvements, including following the SANS best practices for ICS security..

At DEF CON 32, in the ICS village, researchers disclosed vulnerabilities in home and commercial solar panel systems that could potentially disrupt the grid. Dan Berte, Director of IoT security for Bitdefender, discusses his more than a decade in IoT, how the vendor maturity often isn’t there for our smart TVs or even for our solar panels, so reporting vulnerabilities sometimes goes nowhere. That doesn’t stop defenders like Dan, who, along with his team, work hard to change and to educate the industry.

The resources available at small utilities are scarce, and that’s a big problem because small water, gas, and electric facilities are increasingly under attack. Dawn Capelli of Dragos is the Director of OT-CERT, an independent organization that provides free resources to educate and even protect small and medium sized utilities from attack.