Fear, Uncertainty and the Digital Armageddon

Architecture and Background

DEF CON 16 - Morgan Marquise-Boire: Fear, Uncertainty and the Digital Armageddon We now live in an age where attacks on critical infrastructure will cause real world harm. An increasing global concern regarding cyber-terrorism reflects the problem critical infrastructure security poses for many large IT consulting companies, telecommunications providers, utilities and industrial companies. SCADA networks are the foundation of the infrastructure which makes everyday life possible in most first world countries.

Vulnerability Analysis

This talk will provide an introduction to critical infrastructure environments and SCADA networks and the major differences that exist between understood security best practice and the protective measures regularly found (or not) in these networks. The most common security mistakes will be covered, as will real world examples taken from penetration testing SCADA environments. Additionally, this talk will expose some of the potentially catastrophic consequences of a failure in a production SCADA environment.

Exploitation and Demonstrations

There will be an examination of the critical infrastructure hysteria which is currently in vogue and some consideration of steps which can be taken to secure these networks and prevent cyber-terrorism. Morgan Marquis-Boire is a Principal Security Consultant at Security-Assessment.com where he specializes in Unix, forensics, and network security. He has a degree in philosophy and enjoys big kit and forgotten networks.

Remediation and Defensive Strategies

Prior to his present incarnation as a corporate security guy, he's worked doing cluster computing, government infrastructure, Linux security appliances, and a security start-up in Japan. He has penned articles for magazines, written whitepapers, and presented at conferences around the world on a diverse range of subjects from SAN Security to Anonymous Network Technologies. For copies of the slides and additional materials please see the DEF CON 16 Archive here: