From the Editor

William Craske Editor

In July an ASPI report found organisations were looking to automate and integrate their IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology) systems prompted by increasing demands from stakeholders looking for convergence. Given critical national infrastructure providers are under pressure to deliver services more efficiently and at lower cost, market competition, technological change, reduced government funding and price regulation has opened the door for digital freight start-ups whose services offer instantaneous quotes while tracking shipments through an online or mobile interface. In order to keep up, the report confirmed, organisations have sought to automate and integrate more of their IT and OT systems as stakeholders expect

Point Omega

a rapid increase in convergence over the next two years. Launched in Canberra, the report surmised that increasing connectivity via the Internet of Things (IoT) has brought both “benefits and new risks that Australia is not yet prepared for”. These risks include a rise in cyberattacks on critical infrastructure that have stricken provider systems and rendered them non-functional in the last two years. Adopting a common risk framework is now imperative for IT/OT convergence as increasing threats, including automated transport networks, were on the rise as nation states moved into hybrid cyber warfare. According to Richard Clarke, former US Government Counterterrorism Official, the major threat actors are now predominantly governments and military organisations. Saudi Aramco, who had its oil reserves attacked by drones in September, was victim of a cyberattack in 2012 in which 35,000 computers were disabled, crippling its operations. In 2015, an alleged attack by Russia breached the control systems of a Ukrainian electricity distribution company. Outages affected a quarter of a million people. Two years later the country’s judicial system was attacked. US intelligence has also linked Russian cyberattacks on US energy, nuclear and water sectors as recently as last year. Because OT is a cyber-physical system that controls electricity generators and valves that mix chemicals in vats or transfer gas through pipelines, the system devices are built to last. As an asset its lifetime use greatly exceeds that of the IT which it manages via updated software. Using legacy OT technology that still works itself is not an issue, providing that same technology is separated from other systems. But as the IT and OT worlds are converging to enable remote control and access to real-time plant operating data, greater tensions between priorities of confidentiality and availability are emerging. It’s this very convergence that opens up OT vulnerabilities to attack. A freight network of operational heavy vehicles, it goes without saying, would be particularly susceptible. From 2016 to 2017, according to Accenture, there was a 22.7 percentage increase in cybersecurity costs in Australia. Ransomware damage alone exceeded $5 billion in 2017, 15 times the cost in 2015. The House of Representatives’ Inquiry into Automated Mass Transit Response is due in Q4 of this year. Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Population, Alan Tudge, has asked for a Committee Inquiry focusing on road and rail mass transit systems and point-to-point transport where automated vehicles cover the last mile of delivery. It will include the role of hydrogen power in land-based mass transit. Cyber resilience, now more than ever, should be mandatory for critical national infrastructure providers and those who manage them. In March China’s Ministry of State Security was responsible for an attack on Australian Parliament the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), our cyber intelligence agency has since concluded. The report, which also included input from the Department of Foreign Affairs, recommended keeping the findings secret in order to avoid disrupting trade relations with Beijing. China is Australia’s largest trading partner. In a consumer economy with a flatlining GDP that puts us in something of a precarious position. It was exiled Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin who said the most empowering relationships are those in which each partner lifts the other to a higher possession of their own being. For the moment our supply chain appears dispossessed.

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