Demystifying advanced persistent threats for industrial control systems.

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Keliris, Anastasis and Maniatakos, Michail.

Cyberattacks are an emerging threat for Industrial Control Systems (ICS) that, given the tight coupling between the cyber and physical components, can have far-reaching implications. It is typical for contemporary ICS components to utilize Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware and software, rendering them prone to vulnerabilities and exploitation techniques that afflict IT systems (Figure 1). In an effort to demonstrate the ICS cyber threat landscape, we discuss a comprehensive methodology for designing an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT), which is a stealthy and continuous type of cyberattack with a high level of sophistication suitable for the complex environment of ICS.