What is ICS?

6 years ago

What is ICS?

And why do you care?

We’ve got your answer here.

Hint: without it, you’d be living a very different and more difficult life!

Watch here:

I-C-S

ICS stands for industrial control systems.

These are the computers and machines that run your world — whether you see them or not.

Every time you drink a glass of water, turn on the light, fill up on gas, ICS made it happen.

In the past, you could probably live your life without thinking about ICS.

Connections

But now, these machines are connected more and more to the Internet.

It helps things move more efficiently.

And it also opens them up to cyber attackers.

Now, digital spies are trying to do recon on the ICS in your country, digital thieves are stealing industrial secrets, and digital guerrillas are working to take control of your critical infrastructure.

That means they want to control your water, electricity, gas, city, food and more.

Fighting Back

It’s not a free-for-all, however.

Companies and governments are also working to protect industrial control systems to keep everything safe and moving.

Next time you hear the letters ICS, you’ll know what it means — and why you care about it — even if you can’t actually see it at all.

Successful Attacks

It’s not easy, but attackers have actually succeeded in attacking industrial control systems through the Internet.

For example, they shut off the power in Ukraine in 2015 and 2016, and they shut off the safety system at a petrochemical plant in the Middle East in 2017.

For now, these attacks are pretty rare.