Industrial control systems (ICSs) which are used in critical infrastructure and other industries mostly use various communication protocols. Most of these communication protocols have various cyber security challenges and weakness that give the attackers the opportunity to gain to their malicious intentions. In this paper, we assess IEC 60870-5-104 protocols from security perspective which is used in the ICSs as telemetry communication. According to achievement of these goals, we have analyzed the IEC 60870-5-104 design phase carefully and used experimental test bed to identify the security threats and vulnerabilities and characterize the technical attacks. Finally we review the design of hardening mechanisms and their challenges.
