FBI ICS Threat Indicators Fact Sheet

Bridget O’Grady over at the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators has published a link on the ASDWA’s Security Notes web site to a new FBI/DHS handout on Potential Indicators of Cyber Threats to Industrial Control Systems. It’s nice to see the FBI and DHS cooperating on ICS security issues, but I hope this hand out is not an indicator of the quality of their collaborative work.

To be sure, for a one page handout this does a fairly good job of presenting interesting information about the threat to ICS security. The limited list of potential threat indicators does provide a start to awareness, but it is hardly comprehensive. It also assumes a level of security awareness (eg: no explanation what a ‘targeted phishing email’ is) that may not be appropriate.

They probably could have done without the “How Do They Work” section as it doesn’t provide much in the way of information about threat indicators. The space could have been put to better use describing some recent attacks.

The biggest problem with this hand-out is that it is obviously a draft that should never have seen publication. The contact information for the FBI’s Cyber Task Force is completely missing.

If anyone has seen a more properly vetted version of this sheet, please let me know. It’s not much but it could be of some limited use in communicating information to people in the control system community.