GRID GRID OT and SCADA Protocol Security

Question 1

Which communication protocol, widely used in US electric utility SCADA systems, was originally designed without authentication or encryption?

Accepted Answer

DNP3

Answer

Modbus

Answer

PROFINET

Answer

EtherNet/IP

Question 2

What is the primary security weakness of the Modbus TCP protocol in ICS environments?

Accepted Answer

It has no built-in authentication, authorization, or data integrity verification

Answer

It uses weak encryption algorithms

Answer

It only supports UDP, making monitoring difficult

Answer

It requires vendor-specific hardware tokens

Question 3

Which attack technique exploits the lack of authentication in Modbus to send unauthorized commands to a PLC?

Accepted Answer

Man-in-the-middle command injection

Answer

SQL injection

Answer

Cross-site scripting

Answer

Buffer overflow in HTTPS

Question 4

What does the acronym 'PROFINET' stand for and which industry uses it most prominently?

Accepted Answer

Process Field Network — used primarily in discrete manufacturing automation

Answer

Process Field Network — used primarily in oil and gas

Answer

Protocol for Field Instrumentation — used in water utilities

Answer

Process Field Internet — used in smart grid applications

Question 5

Which security control can detect unauthorized Modbus or DNP3 command sequences without disrupting live ICS traffic?

Accepted Answer

Passive protocol-aware IDS/NSM with OT-specific signatures

Answer

Active authenticated scanning

Answer

Endpoint antivirus on PLCs

Answer

HTTPS certificate pinning

Question 6

In DNP3 Secure Authentication v5, what cryptographic mechanism is used to verify the identity of a master station to an outstation?

Accepted Answer

Symmetric key-based challenge-response using HMAC

Answer

RSA public key infrastructure certificates

Answer

Kerberos tickets

Answer

OAuth 2.0 bearer tokens