Defending critical infrastructure on Western Europe’s largest live fire cyber exercise

By : Dr Richard Piggin (Accenture) & Capt Andreas Iliopoulos (Royal Signals)

Exercise DEFENCE CYBER MARVEL (DCM) is an annual competition. Teams from Defence, Government agencies, industry partners, UK critical infrastructure operators and other nations, compete in a challenging real-world scenario defending a variety of systems. The range includes specialist systems, with technology used in critical infrastructure. Accenture, an industry partner, designed a specialist rail system for DCM3, to feature technology used in safety critical systems for the exercise, and for subsequent training.

The system utilises industrial control systems technology, commonly used for safety-related automation. It embodies components and architectures used in rail applications, including trackside, and in locomotives. Similar safety-related control systems are used across Critical National Infrastructure, including transport, critical manufacturing, utilities, energy, and hazardous industrial processes. The paper looks back at exploiting the DCM 3 event, and maximising future impact. This approach included the use of specialist security functionality to provide control system awareness and support a range of additional functions, such as control system protection and threat hunting capability.

Link to full article.