A Study on Threat Containment through VDI for Security Management of Partner Companies Operating at Industrial Control System Facility

The results from the analysis of recent security breach cases of industrial control systems revealed that most of them were caused by the employees of a partner company who had been managing the control system. For this reason, the majority of the current company security management systems have been developed focusing on their performances. Despite such effort, many hacking attempts against a major company, public institution or financial institution are still attempted by the partner company or outsourced employees. Thus, the institutions or organizations that manage Industrial Control Systems (ICSs) associated with major national infrastructures involving traffic, water resources, energy, etc. are putting emphasis on their security management as the role of those partners is increasingly becoming important as outsourcing security task has become a common practice. However, in reality, it is also a fact that this is the point where security is most vulnerable and various security management plans have been continuously studied and proposed. A system that enhances the security level of a partner company with a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) has been developed in this study through research on the past performances of partner companies stationed at various types of industrial control infrastructures and its performance outcomes were statistically compiled to propose an appropriate model for the current ICSs by comparing vulnerabilities, measures taken and their results before and after adopting the VDI.