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.
 

With the advent of computers and quantum algorithms, the security of current public key cryptography systems can face challenges. Breaking the current cryptographic structures would require multi-million qubit quantum computers, which have not yet been built; however, with significant advancements in quantum technology by leading companies in this field and the concern within the cryptography community, there has been a felt need to quickly provide countermeasures. In 2016, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) sought proposals from around the world to standardize post-quantum cryptographic schemes to address this issue. At that time, the McEliece code-based encryption system (and its equivalent Niederreiter system), despite being proven resistant to both classical and quantum algorithms, was not accepted due to its large public keys. Ultimately, the Classic McEliece, HQC, and BIKE encryption systems, which fall under code-based cryptography, advanced to the final stage of these competitions, and the winners of this cryptographic category will be announced by the end of 2024. This paper aims to review the developments made to optimize code-based structures and to examine the selected code-based cryptographic schemes and the latest status of Classic McEliece standardization.