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Lindsey Panetta, lindsey.panetta@gtri.gatech.edu
Summary Sentence: Ph.D. Candidate David Formby presents the first known ransomware that targets programmable logic controllers in industrial control systems.
Full Summary: No summary paragraph submitted.
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ABSTRACT | Ransomware has recently emerged as the trending new business model for cybercrime with high-profile attacks on hospitals, revealing how profitable the technique can be when used to hold operationally critical assets for ransom. Meanwhile, industrial control system (ICS) networks are still struggling to update their security practices due to the perceived absence of threats and rarity of real-world ICS attacks. Recent reports suggest that ICS networks may be the next domain that ransomware is targeting but, to date, all attacks have simply used standard ransomware against personal computers with limited effect. In this work, we develop the first known version of ransomware that targets programmable logic controllers, discuss the economic implications of such an attack, and lay out a generic framework for ICS ransomware to aid in future study and defenses.
BIO | David Formby is a Ph.D. Candidate in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, performing research in the area of network security for industrial control systems under Dr. Raheem Beyah. His past and current research projects include network characterizations of power distribution substations, techniques for device type fingerprinting for cyber-physical systems, and tools to detect and analyze changes to industrial controller programming.
