Curriculum: OT / Critical-Infrastructure Security
Subject: Curriculum: OT / Critical-Infrastructure Security
4 chapters
1. Phase 1 (Months 1–2): How the physical world is controlled
[Verse 1]
Down in the plant where the steam pipes hum,
a little gray box counts the turns of a drum,
that's the PLC, bolted to a valve and a gauge,
reading the world every scan of its cage.
Miles down the pipeline, past the last fence door,
sits an RTU on a concrete floor,
whispering numbers on a radio thread,
telling the control room the tank isn't dead.
[Chorus]
P-L-C, R-T-U, H-M-I on the screen,
SCADA's the eye, DCS keeps it clean,
historian's the diary, writes down every beat,
safety system's the hand that pulls back the heat,
say it slow now, layer by layer,
that's how the physical world stays square.
[Verse 2]
The HMI's a window, colored and bright,
green means it's humming, red means it bit,
SCADA's the spider spread over the field,
DCS is the brain where the batches get sealed,
historian's the librarian, never forgets a trend,
and the safety system's the one that won't bend,
it trips the breaker before the boiler screams,
independent of logic, guarding the seams.
[Chorus]
P-L-C, R-T-U, H-M-I on the screen,
SCADA's the eye, DCS keeps it clean,
historian's the diary, writes down every beat,
safety system's the hand that pulls back the heat.
[Verse 3]
Picture a pyramid, Purdue drew the plan,
level zero's the metal, the valve and the fan,
climb to the plant floor, controllers in a row,
level three's the office that watches the flow.
But somebody ran a cable, thought it'd save some time,
straight from the payroll server to the turbine line,
that's the original sin, a wall with a hole,
and ransomware wandered in and swallowed control.
[Verse 4]
Modbus TCP talks plain, no lock on its gate,
DNP3 logs events out at the substation freight,
IEC sixty-one-eight-fifty runs the breakers on the grid,
OPC UA wraps the message, encrypted amid.
Open up Wireshark, watch the function codes fly,
read a coil, write a register, catch it with your eye.
[Bridge]
In the lab tonight, OpenPLC wakes up slow,
ScadaBR paints a pump station aglow,
tank's filling steady, the float arm climbs high,
then Python reaches in — one packet slips by,
forces the coil open, the pump won't ever stop,
that's the lesson learned when you watch a system drop.
[Chorus]
P-L-C, R-T-U, H-M-I on the screen,
SCADA's the eye, DCS keeps it clean,
historian's the diary, writes down every beat,
safety system's the hand that pulls back the heat,
say it slow now, layer by layer,
that's how the physical world stays square.
[Outro]
Crack the spine on Knapp, industrial and true,
eight-hundred-eighty-two, revision three for you,
PLC, RTU, HMI, SCADA, DCS, historian, safety line —
that's the physical world, now keep it in line.
2. Phase 2 (Months 3–4): Standards and threats
[Verse 1 – Male]
Draw the fence around the turbine, call the fence a zone,
the wire that crosses over is a conduit, not alone.
Security levels, zero climbing up to four,
how hard the wall must be before the wolf gets through the door.
[Verse 2 – Female]
NERC CIP watches over the grid from coast to coast,
TSA holds the pipeline to a directive like a ghost.
Canadian Centre for Cyber tells the utilities plain:
patch what you can, watch what you can't, and never trust the chain.
[Chorus – Both]
Zones and conduits, levels standing guard,
IEC sixty-two four four three, the standard's not that hard —
NERC, TSA, the Centre keep the score,
say it with me: segment, monitor, restore.
[Verse 3 – Male]
Stuxnet crept through a thumb drive, centrifuge unaware,
spun the rotors past their limits, whispered numbers in the air.
The fix was air-gapped diligence, and code that's cryptic-signed —
a single flash drive toppled what the engineers designed.
[Verse 3B – Female]
Ukraine, twenty fifteen, phishing opened up the door,
breakers tripped by human hands through a hijacked SCADA floor.
Industroyer struck twenty-sixteen, protocol as blade —
role-based access, logged and locked, could've stopped the raid.
[Verse 4 – Male]
TRITON reached for safety systems, the last wall in the plant,
Colonial's billing servers fell, and fuel became a chant.
Segregate the business network from the valves that keep you fed —
that's the lesson written after Colonial went to bed.
[Verse 4B – Female]
Industroyer2, twenty twenty-two, came back for one more round,
same old breakers, same old grid, on Ukrainian ground.
Detection is the difference between a blackout and a save —
watch the wire, know the pattern, that's the standard, that's the stave.
[Chorus – Both]
Zones and conduits, levels standing guard,
IEC sixty-two four four three, the standard's not that hard —
NERC, TSA, the Centre keep the score,
say it with me: segment, monitor, restore.
[Bridge – Spoken/Sung, Female then Male]
In the lab tonight, we listen, we don't touch —
Zeek is watching Modbus, parsing every clutch.
An unauthorized write function, a coil flipped somewhere —
write the rule, raise the alarm, catch the ghost in the air.
[Bridge – Male]
Countdown to Zero Day, Zetter's warning in the wire,
Sandworm crawling networks, Greenberg's slow-burn fire.
Read them both like scripture, learn the names, remember why —
the grid don't fall from thunder, it falls from a phishing lie.
[Final Chorus – Both]
Zones and conduits, levels standing guard,
sixty-two four four three, memorize the card —
Stuxnet, Ukraine, TRITON, Colonial's dark day,
Industroyer twice — watch the wire, don't look away.
[Outro – Spoken, Female]
Segment. Monitor. Restore.
That's the whole curriculum, walking through the door.
3. Phase 3 (Months 5–6): Credential and proof
[Verse 1]
Five months of night-owl reading, coffee gone cold,
GICSP glitters, the gold standard, we're told,
But that tuition tag could buy a used canoe,
So I sign for ISA six-two-four-three, cheaper and true,
Fundamentals badge, recognized clear up in Canada's line,
Self-funded scholar, counting every dime.
[Chorus]
Zertifikat in der Hand, Beweis in meinem Blick,
Zone and conduit, das ist der Trick,
Segment the water, segment the trust,
Bulwark the pipeline — that's a rampart, a must,
Ich zeig' dir, ich beweis' dir, look what I built,
Credential and proof, kein Zweifel, kein Schuld.
[Verse 2]
Picture Ontario, a fictional town, Elm Creek Bay,
Pumps and PLCs humming through the gray,
I sketch out six zones on paper, careful and tall,
A bulwark between them — that wall guards it all,
Conduits connecting only what needs to speak,
Ten fixes on my roadmap, patching every leak,
From default passwords to a firewall left unmanned,
Threat model finished, segmentation diagram in hand.
[Chorus]
Zertifikat in der Hand, Beweis in meinem Blick,
Zone and conduit, das ist der Trick,
Segment the water, segment the trust,
Bulwark the pipeline — that's a rampart, a must,
Ich zeig' dir, ich beweis' dir, look what I built,
Credential and proof, kein Zweifel, kein Schuld.
[Verse 3]
CCTX shares the whispers of the wolves at the gate,
SANS ICS Summit streams free, so I don't wait,
YouTube glow at midnight, engineers talk shop,
My local ISA section — the questions never stop,
Mentors trade their scars like coins across a table,
Community's the conduit that keeps the green grid stable.
[Verse 4]
No corner office window, just a desk lamp and a chair,
No alphabet of letters trailing off into the air,
But I know a Purdue model like I know my own two hands,
I know why the historian sits outside the OT lands,
I've read the breach reports till the acronyms make sense,
Ukraine's grid, the substation, the cost of a thin defense,
So when they ask my pedigree, I'll show the work instead,
A binder full of diagrams, not just a line I've read.
[Bridge]
Not the gold-plated badge, just the honest proof,
A design that holds when someone tests the roof,
Ich bin bereit, I'm building something real,
Wasserwerk, Stromnetz — das ist wie ich fühl'.
[Chorus]
Zertifikat in der Hand, Beweis in meinem Blick,
Zone and conduit, das ist der Trick,
Segment the water, segment the trust,
Bulwark the pipeline — that's a rampart, a must,
Ich zeig' dir, ich beweis' dir, look what I built,
Credential and proof, kein Zweifel, kein Schuld.
[Outro]
Zone für Zone, Beweis in der Hand,
Six months later, guarding my own land,
Ten-item roadmap, the capstone stands,
No canoe money spent, just calloused, steady hands.
4. Habits
[Verse 1]
Open a folder, call it "notebook," plain and true,
Markdown pages, headers marching two by two,
No fancy database, just a text file and a date,
Every lesson learned gets a line before it's late.
Bullet points for breakers, diagrams you sketched by hand,
A place where half-formed theories get to stand,
It isn't polished, it isn't meant to shine,
It's proof you showed your work, one honest line at a time.
[Chorus]
Commit it, date it, never delete it,
That's the habit, quiet and repeated,
Push to the repo, let the whole world read it,
Portfolio built one paragraph at a time,
Markdown memory, reasoning in rhyme.
[Verse 2]
Write what broke, write what you were guessing,
Caption the diagram, skip the empty blessing,
A commit message like a lighthouse keeper's log,
Short and honest, cutting through the fog.
Folders for the months, branches for the doubt,
Merge your Tuesday thinking with what Friday figured out,
Nobody's grading it, no red pen in sight,
Just you and the record, growing overnight.
[Chorus]
Commit it, date it, never delete it,
That's the habit, quiet and repeated,
Push to the repo, let the whole world read it,
Portfolio built one paragraph at a time,
Markdown memory, reasoning in rhyme.
[Bridge]
Once a month, open the case file wide,
A grid went dark, or a pipeline pressure lied,
Read the after-action, page by weary page,
Ask what fence you'd build, what breaker you'd engage,
Note three changes you would make before the next attack,
Then commit that wisdom, so you never lose the track.
Slow down on the timeline, see where the warning slept,
Somewhere a sensor cried and nobody kept
The log open long enough to hear it right,
Write that down tonight, not tomorrow night.
[Verse 3]
Relay tripped at Substation Nine, the report will say,
Someone missed a patch on a quiet Tuesday,
You won't rewrite history, but you can rewrite your file,
Add the lesson, add the date, add your own style.
[Verse 4]
Someday somebody new will open your notebook wide,
Trace the failures back, see how you learned inside,
Not a resume line, not a badge to wear,
Just a trail of thinking, honest and bare.
They'll copy the habit, start their own today,
Open a folder, call it their own way,
The lineage continues, the record never lies,
Every honest entry helps the next mind rise,
Every dated page a torch that never dies.
[Chorus]
Commit it, date it, never delete it,
That's the habit, quiet and repeated,
Push to the repo, let the whole world read it,
Portfolio built one paragraph at a time,
Markdown memory, reasoning in rhyme.
[Outro]
Notebook open, cursor blinking slow,
One commit tonight is a habit you can grow,
Markdown pages, midnight and mild,
Building your portfolio, one honest file,
One honest file.
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