After several decades of hiding in plain sight throughout Industrial Control Systems (ICSs) , PLCs and other IoT/IoE devices were suddenly exposed as a result of the 2009 deployment of an IP address search engine called Shodan. As more and more devices were discovered, analysts realized that many devices that control the country’s vital infrastructure were potentially vulnerable to hackers. With nuclear power plants, dams, power stations and oil rigs on the list of potentially vulnerable targets, immediate and thorough action is necessary to ensure the safety and security of the American People.

• An estimated 30 billion connected devices will be part of the Internet of Things (IoT) by the year 2020. That number could double by 2024.
• Many of these devices, including Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) used in Industrial Control Systems (ICS), remain discoverable and vulnerable to cyber-attack.
• These devices control vital infrastructures such as nuclear power plants, dams, the power grid and oil rigs. Cyber-attacks on facilities like these are potentially catastrophic.

This proposed three-pronged approach will find vulnerabilities before new products are deployed, hide them once they have been deployed, and make it nearly impossible for malware attacks to penetrate our IIoT devices.

The Internet of Things – Securing the American Infrastructure with IoT