detecting-attacks-on-scada-systems

name	detecting-attacks-on-scada-systems
description	Use when this skill covers detecting cyber attacks targeting Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems including man-in-the-middle attacks on industrial protocols, unauthorized command injection into PLCs, HMI compromise, historian data manipulation, and denial-of-service against control system communications. It leverages OT-specific intrusion detection systems, industrial protocol anomaly detection, and process data analytics to identify attacks that traditional IT security t...
domain	cybersecurity
tags	["ot-security","ics","scada","industrial-control","iec62443","intrusion-detection","threat-detection"]
subdomain	ot-ics-security
version	1.0.0
author	oyi77
license	Apache-2.0
nist_ai_rmf	["MEASURE-2.7","MAP-5.1","MANAGE-2.4"]
atlas_techniques	["AML.T0070","AML.T0066","AML.T0082"]
nist_csf	["PR.IR-01","DE.CM-01","ID.AM-05","GV.OC-02"]

Detecting Attacks On Scada Systems

Overview

Cybersecurity skill for detecting attacks on scada systems. Follows industry best practices and security standards.

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

• "detecting attacks on scada systems"

• "This skill covers detecting cyber attacks targeting Supervisory Control and Data"

• When deploying intrusion detection capabilities in a SCADA environment for the first time

• When investigating suspected cyber attacks against industrial control systems

• When building detection rules for OT-specific attack patterns (Stuxnet, TRITON, Industroyer)

• When integrating OT network monitoring with an enterprise SOC for unified threat visibility

• When responding to alerts from OT security monitoring tools (Dragos, Nozomi, Claroty)

Do not use for detecting attacks on IT-only networks without SCADA/ICS components, for building generic network IDS rules (see building-detection-rules-with-sigma), or for incident response procedures after an attack is confirmed (see performing-ot-incident-response).

When NOT to Use

• When you lack proper authorization for testing
• For production systems without change management
• When the task requires legal or compliance expertise beyond technical scope

Prerequisites

• Passive network monitoring sensors deployed on SPAN/TAP ports at OT network boundaries
• OT intrusion detection system (Dragos Platform, Nozomi Guardian, Claroty xDome, or Suricata with OT rulesets)
• Understanding of industrial protocols in use (Modbus, DNP3, OPC UA, EtherNet/IP, S7comm)
• Baseline of normal SCADA communication patterns (polling intervals, function codes, register ranges)
• Access to process historian data for physical process anomaly correlation

Workflow

# Example: IOC detection
import re

IOC_PATTERNS = {
    "ip": r"\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b",
    "domain": r"\b[a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z]{2,}\b",
    "hash_md5": r"\b[a-f0-9]{32}\b",
    "hash_sha256": r"\b[a-f0-9]{64}\b",
}

def () -> :
     {k: re.findall(v, text)  k, v  IOC_PATTERNS.items()}