Mink Jo was responsible for creating our WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) and Project Schedule Network Diagram, which defined project tasks, sub-tasks, and target completion dates. These resources helped our team stay on track and focused on completing objectives that drove the project to completion. Mink was also responsible for conducting research related to finding a suitable honeypot for our network and determining how it would best be installed, both for luring attackers and alerting of intrusions.
Gary Khodayari was in charge of conducting our network assessments and vulnerability tests. He followed ISA/IEC 62443 guidelines for asset identification and risk assessments, which resulted in Security Target Levels (SL-Ts) for our IACS (Industrial Automated Control System) equipment, as well as identification of network Zones and Conduits. As proof of concept, Gary also conducted a penetration test and demonstrated exploitable vulnerabilities in our simulated IACS network.
Michael Klym was tasked with designing, creating, and documenting our two virtual IACS networks. The first was a simple network representing a small control network with IT (Information Technology) resources and some design flaws which may be taken advantage of by a threat actor. The second network was a revision of the first, but with security monitoring and vulnerability countermeasures in place to reduce the network attack surface, while increasing network visibility. This improved design took cues from our ISA/IEC 62443 based network assessment.

Our project encompassed creating a simple simulated IACS (Industrial Automated Control System) network for the purpose of demonstrating control system vulnerabilities. We conducted a risk assessment following ISA/IEC 62443 guidelines, hardened devices, and redesigned zones and conduits to improve the security of the network. We also added security appliances to the redesigned network, including firewalls, a SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) system, and a honeypot. Our deliverables include a live demo, this formal technical report, and a presentation containing our project outcomes and findings.

Part of this project involved managing our expectations of what could reasonably be completed given our timeline (April 26, 2021 – May 27, 2021). Our WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) and Project Schedule Network Diagram defined 18 tasks in 5 phases, with 3 milestone events that had to be completed prior to our May 27th project deadline.
Our first milestone target was to design, build, configure and test our initial IACS (Industrial Automated Control System) network. This milestone covered the first of our phases: Build.
Our second milestone involved the most work and covered completion of the ISA/IEC 62443 based network assessment, including identifying Zones and Conduits, identifying assets, and performing a risk assessment. After this, we conducted our penetration test, which together with the aforementioned comprised the Assess phase.
The Design and Implement stages were also part of our second milestone. The Design phase included creating countermeasures in line with our network assessment results, researching and integrating a honeypot into the network, and updating our overall IACS virtual network design. In the Implementation phase we upgraded our existing systems in the virtual network, added our chosen security appliances, and once again tested and documented the network.
Finally, as a third milestone, we created and edited this document – our final report – as well as prepared a PowerPoint presentation of our results and findings, which we presented on May 27th. This phase was aptly named Report.
Throughout the project, we had to be prepared to deal with inevitable delays and unforeseen complications. Our schedule as it stood was ambitious, and its timely completion relied on our ability to work efficiently as a team and adapt to issues. The conclusion of this report goes over what we learned and discusses whether or not we were successful in hitting our predefined targets.
We also took into consideration the additional obstacles we found ourselves facing with regard to the COVID-19 situation. Because of this, much of our collaborative work remained distanced. We relied on platforms such as Discord for voice and text communication, and Google Docs and Microsoft Word for writing and editing. The on-campus BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology) lab was open with limited access, so we expected to do the vast majority of this project from home and on our personal computers.

The goal of this project was to showcase how vulnerable control networks can be, especially when running outdated equipment. We started by building a basic control network and identifying assets in accordance with ISA/IEC 62443 guidelines. From there, we conducted risk assessments of identified assets, and prioritized countermeasures based on Security Level Targets (SL-Ts) for the protection of each asset. We also showed how defining Zones and Conduits can be beneficial in breaking down the network into smaller, more manageable pieces with different SLs of their own. Once SL-Ts were established, we moved on to defining controls and countermeasures that mitigate the identified risks.
After our assessment was complete, we moved on to conduct a penetration test of the network and showed how a network of this type may be compromised. We then documented our findings and included a writeup of how we compromised the IACS (Industrial Automated Control System) network. We also included recommendations for how to block the attack in the future.
The next step was to research and add security controls and countermeasures to the network in a complete redesign. We took our original network and modified it to include our suggested improvements, which increased the overall security of the network and reduced its attack surface. Following the redesign, we built, tested, and documented our configurations for potential future reference and/or use. A final network assessment was also done to show how our network had been improved.