Effective Measures to Secure Legacy Hardware and Critical Operations
Question
An architect was recently hired by a power utility to increase the security posture of the company's power generation and distribution sites.
Upon review, the architect identifies legacy hardware with highly vulnerable and unsupported software driving critical operations.
These systems must exchange data with each other, be highly synchronized, and pull from the Internet time sources.
Which of the following architectural decisions would BEST reduce the likelihood of a successful attack without harming operational capability? (Choose two.)
Answers
Explanations
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A. B. C. D. E.BE.
The architect has identified legacy hardware with highly vulnerable and unsupported software driving critical operations at the power utility company. The systems need to exchange data with each other, be highly synchronized, and pull from the Internet time sources. Two architectural decisions that can reduce the likelihood of a successful attack without harming operational capability are:
A. Isolate the systems on their own network: Isolating the systems on their own network will create a segmented environment where the legacy hardware will be placed in an isolated network that is separate from the rest of the LAN. This approach will reduce the attack surface by minimizing the number of entry points for potential attackers. Also, this approach allows for better control and monitoring of traffic that enters and leaves the network, making it easier to detect and prevent any malicious traffic from reaching the legacy systems.
C. Employ own stratum-0 and stratum-1 NTP servers: NTP (Network Time Protocol) is a protocol that allows networked devices to synchronize their clocks. The legacy systems require accurate time synchronization, and the current solution involves pulling time from Internet time sources, which could be vulnerable to attacks. Employing own stratum-0 and stratum-1 NTP servers can provide accurate time synchronization to the legacy systems without relying on external sources that may be compromised. These servers are designed to be highly accurate and reliable, making them ideal for critical systems.
B, D, and E are not the best options to reduce the likelihood of a successful attack without harming operational capability, as explained below:
B. Install a firewall and IDS between systems and the LAN: While installing a firewall and IDS can be effective in protecting the systems, it may also harm the operational capability of the legacy systems. This is because the legacy systems need to exchange data with each other, and adding security controls between them can affect the synchronization of the systems, causing them to fail or become unstable.
D. Upgrade the software on critical systems: Upgrading the software on critical systems could potentially fix the vulnerabilities, but it can also harm the operational capability of the legacy systems. Legacy hardware may not be compatible with new software, or the new software may not be able to synchronize with other legacy systems or external time sources.
E. Configure the systems to use government-hosted NTP servers: Configuring the systems to use government-hosted NTP servers may provide accurate time synchronization, but it may not reduce the likelihood of a successful attack. It still involves relying on external time sources, which can be compromised.
