Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1132978
40 I ICT TODAY Therefore, building auto- mation has become an important and growing area of security vulner- ability, confronting the same issues corporate computer networks had in Mitnick's day, such as lack of encryption, authentication weakness, and password reset problems. There are a few crucial questions to answer: How will BACnet continue to adapt to this new world of the IoT? How can the BAS industry prevent hackers from gaining a foothold? As the ICT industry is transi- tioning to the world of IoT and smart building development, it is important that ICT designers, installers, project managers, and consultants become increasingly familiar with the current status of the BAS and cybersecurity, the weaknesses of the BAS and considerations for improvement, and the new BACnet Secure Connect (BACnet/SC) technology that promises to solve some of the FIGURE 1: No highly technical hacking is required to bring down a mission critical system. Dumpster diving and social engineering, such as an infected Microsoft Word file, can be enough to crack a system. FIGURE 2: More and more levels of the building network are collecting data on operating systems. Image source: Navigant Research. IoT BEMS BMS BAS Infrastructure for connectivity and data acquisition for actionable insights and system improvement Analytics that utilize data from BMS and BAS, plus external data such as utility billing, grid signals, or weather Software plus networking/protocol translation hardware that coordinate the operation of multiple BAS System of individual components to automate the control in a single building function Enabling hardware and communications Decision support for the C-suite, enterprise, and operations Front-end decision support for operations HVAC, lighting, fire & safety, controls INTERNET OF THINGS BUILDING ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS BUILDING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS BUILDING AUTOMATION SYSTEMS most serious cybersecurity problems facing the BAS and the entire enterprise network. When considering any security application, it is helpful to recall that there are now many thousands of unrepentant, non-rehabilitated, and less benevolent Mitnicks who also routinely go dumpster diving and do a lot of old-fashioned, yet still highly successful, social engineering to bring down a system (Figure 1). Therefore, securing BACnet systems needs to be a major priority for any IT, facilities, or ICT network manager. OVERVIEW OF BUILDING AUTOMATION TODAY There are two dominant forces in play with BACnet and smart building automation today: cyber- security is more important than ever before, and there is the collection of an enormous amount of data (Figure 2) causing an overrun of high traffic that is overloading the systems to the point where even one unsophisticated malicious intruder could easily knock out firewalls and other security systems. Compounding matters is that building automation is certainly undergoing both a cultural and technological transition. Many facilities engineers and managers are embarking on a new frontier having to manage so many new