Analysis of Field Devices Used in Industrial Control Systems

A significant portion of the critical infrastructure relies on the proper operation of industrial control system (ICS) field devices. Unfortunately, security solutions for ICS field devices have not progressed sufficiently to address emerging threats. A primary shortfall is the ability to identify device components and analyze their lower level functionality. This paper describes the results obtained from hardware tear-downs of ICS field devices. The results demonstrate the ability to identify key components, analyze device firmware and examine backplane protocols – all necessary steps for the dynamic analysis and development of automated security solutions.