The Curious Case of Dual Event Logs

Cybersecurity is a vital concern for railways, as rail engineers rely on interconnected systems and digital technologies to ensure the efficient and safe operation of trains and infrastructure. Implementing robust cybersecurity measures in the realm of rail industrial controls is crucial to protecting railways.

Here are some key considerations for ICS cybersecurity for the rail industry:

All networks are “critical” when it comes to railways. This is why they have to be 100% secured…99% just won’t cut it. The rail Industry cares enormously about safety. The origin of the word “engineer” came from railroads. What was their primary job? It was to not hit another train 1st, and coordinate the travel of these trains on these tracks 2nd. There were no multiple rails, as there are today, so everything was majestically orchestrated and safety was KING. Then, a handful of years ago, the entire Rail industry realized they had to also deal with Cyber, and that it hadn’t been addressed.

Video on the current state of cybersecurity when it comes to today’s modern railway systems – SOURCE

Unlike a typical IT department or an online businesses, when it comes to Rail, the solution needs to be deterministic, and not a numbers game. Malware and ransomware are able to sneak past firewalls all the time. For most businesses, they can simply restore from backups and the only real loss are the few points on their uptime stats. For Railway, the consequences of such cyberattacks are much worse.

Engineering-grade Rail Cybersecurity:

When it comes to railway security, Waterfall use of unidirectional gateways separates vital Industrial Control Systems from the IT network, preventing any unauthorized remote access and removing the potential for any movement from the IT system to the Industrial Controls. Industrial systems and IT remain unidirectionally isolated from each other with no ability for IT attackers to ever send anything back into the industrial systems, thereby still allowing unlimited connectivity to the outside world.