The looming threat of cyber-attacks on Industrial Control Systems

By: Daniel Simonds

“Cyber Pearl Harbor” is dramatic language because, after all, each time the United States or another country is attacked, that alerts them to where they are vulnerable.  In this paper, Daniel Simonds focuses on cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure operational technology (OT), specifically Industrial Control Systems (ICSs).  He outlines what ICS attacks are.   Because they can cause physical damage — like the 2010 Stuxnet attack on Iran, which destroyed centrifuges — not only do they merit a vigorous response, they can constitute an act of war.  The threat in the virtual world could lead to war in the physical world, and for that reason the threat of ICS attacks deserves not just serious attention from policymakers, but steps Simonds outlines to reduce America’s vulnerability.

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