The challenges experienced in power substation cyber-security in South Africa
Date
2016
Authors
Mutize, Cephas
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
ABSTRACT
There has been an increase in the number of attacks on the industrial control
systems (ICS) world-wide in recent years due to a number of reasons, one of which
includes the standardisation of the communication system in the industry. This
research focuses on the challenges that the industry is facing in making ICS cybersecure.
The intention is to use the information in assessing the initiatives that
stakeholders have instituted to curb the attacks and to improve stakeholder
understanding for the problem at hand and to inform government to fast track the
legislation on cyber-crime and cyber-security. The qualitative data was collected
through four unstructured interviews with the specialists in the industry, academics
and consultants and 64 responses were received for 13 question questionnaire to
the Control Systems Users and Practitioners. The main challenge was the lack of
legislation to govern the guide the industry on cyber-security and the other problems
will fall away with the introduction the sound legislation. It was found that a good
number of organizations that are compliant to good practices are not experiencing
many challenges. Considering that South Africa does not have cyber-security
legislation, no cyber-security response teams and knowledge sharing in the
industry, it is surprising that the responses from ICS operators shows that there is
some protection from cyber-attacks and the lack of news on major incidents
confirms this also. It is therefore important to have the cyber-security legislation and
to comply to implement best practice to avoid losses due to cyber-attacks.
Description
MBA Thesis
Keywords
Computer networks -- Security measures, Automatic control, Computer security -- Government policy -- South Africa.