Efforts to enhance control system security are around for about a decade. Yet the average chemical plant, power plant, automotive factory or military weapon system still shows a security posture that might not even survive a simple network scan. This led Ralph to reason that simply doing more of what has been done before (more risk assessments, more firewalls, more security patches, more av updates) might not be sufficient to prepare for advanced attacks that everybody must expect after Stuxnet. Therefore Ralph suggests to take a radically different approach that is also better aligned with the way operations and engineering approach reliability problems. In his new book Robust Control System Networks, he shows how complex control system networks can be made robust – and thus reliable and secure – without stressing concepts of risk and threat that most engineers are uncomfortable with as they always involve some kind of crystal ball looking and drama.
Caveat: The book does not contain a thrilling account on Stuxnet and cyberwar. It is a hardcore engineering textbook.