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Industrial Control Systems (ICS) were initially designed to work in sealed environments and as stand-alone systems, interconnections between systems were scarce, as were safety protections. The constant evolutions in the field of ICS, including the inclusion of a large number of communication protocols, IIoT devices, the expansion of interconnections, an incessant search for interoperability between systems and the inclusion of these architectures in critical systems, has meant that the networks on which these industrial control systems, has meant that the networks on which these industrial control systems are built, also known as control networks, have increased their security exponentially.

Confrontations between countries no longer only take place in the physical world, in this new decade, these confrontations also move to the cyber world. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is one of the clearest examples. Among the events that have taken place is the security incident known as Industroyer2, which affected an electrical supplier in Ukraine. The Industroyer2 is the evolution of its predecessor, the malware known as Industroyer, which was able to affect multiple protocols of industrial control systems during its execution. This new variant of the malware focuses on a particular communications protocol, IEC-104, which is widely used in Europe and the Middle East to monitor and control the power system via the TCP/IP communications protocol.

In the year 2022 and as is reflected in the article “Industrial Security 2022 in numbers”, cyberattacks in all industrial sectors have increased by around 30 % in the third quarter of 2022 and it is estimated that the number of organizations or industrial manufacturers victims of a cyberattack was around 40% in the last year. Especially in the industrial sector, the number of attacks has grown exponentially due to the massive introduction of IoT devices (it is expected to go from 13.5 to 21.5 million connected devices in three years) or more specifically about IIoT devices, which have been the main gateway for attacks as manufacturers have prioritized features and mass-production of devices over the security. In addition, this is compounded by planned obsolescence planned (increasingly present in this type of devices), increased interoperability and connectivity and the appearance of new types of malware and exploits which are much more effective.

Antivirus is one of the main lines of defence when a user downloads a malicious file or an attacker has gained access to the computer and attempts to execute malware. Cybercriminals use various means to avoid an antivirus, using different tools and techniques depending on their type and functionalities. This article details the techniques commonly used, as well as the protective measures we should take to prevent attackers from executing malware on our computers.